


Clairvoyant

by MaruMaru



Category: Creepypasta - Fandom, Everyman HYBRID, Petscop
Genre: (again not to main character tho), (not to the main character tho. fuck that noise), Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Blood and Gore, Boarding School, Contract Killings, Crossover Hell, Cults, Dimension Travel, Eldritch Hell, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Global Conspiracy, Graphic Description, I tend to go into detail when writing so..., Implied Childhood Sexual Abuse, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Multiple Crossovers, Past Child Abuse, Prophetic Visions, Psychological Torture, Secret Organizations, Superpowers, Unethical Experimentation, Violence, also slenderman is barely mentioned and the real star o the show is HABIT, my boy, you ready for this shit
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-12
Updated: 2017-09-12
Packaged: 2018-12-27 03:59:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 25,679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12073089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaruMaru/pseuds/MaruMaru
Summary: When Der Großmann ravaged the Earth with his partner in crime, King Z███████, the world was thrown into chaos. Eventually, humans drove the two back and the entities that accompanied them. However, the eldritch entity Z gave off one last memetic wave before he disappeared.It was quite a shock to find that some humans had started to obtain powers beyond their reasoning/control.-------Clair O'Riley is a 19-year-old student ready to attend Fairmont-Maxwell's Boarding School for the Gifted to discover her true calling and to control her own God-like powers: the ability to warp reality. All seems to be going well in her new life.......until a little demon asks her for some 'help.'





	1. EXODUS

**Author's Note:**

> Hello and welcome to Clairvoyant! Please be advised that prior to reading there will be very graphic themes and implications in this novel. This includes:  
> Blood/Gore  
> Child Abuse (physical/emotional/sexual) (mentioned)  
> Drug Abuse  
> Graphic Langauge  
> Sexual Assault (mentioned)  
> Graphic Depictions of Violence  
> Body Horror  
> If this isn’t what you want to read then I suggest you stop reading here. Otherwise, have fun and enjoy my writing!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> exposition! also the start of some spooky shit.

“Clarisse! Please, young lady. Pay attention to your mother when she’s talking to you!”

Jolted out of the daydreaming void, a nineteen year old girl was thrust back into reality when something made of flesh jabbed at her shoulder. The young adult came face to face with a woman with a round face and body. Her red, curly hair was in a ponytail and she wore homely clothes while wearing a necklace with a lowercase T symbol on it. One cup in her hand faintly smelled of chamomile and her other empty hand shrank back from her daughter.

“Clarisse, please. God made you too pretty to be distracted by little things,” she fussed. “Didn’t you hear what I was saying to you?”

“No?”

“No, what?”

A sigh. “No, mother.”

Clarisse O’Riley had long, messy red hair. Her eyes were a wooden brown with flecks of dull green inside of the iris. She was currently dressed in a gray sweater showing off one shoulder (to which her mother would stare at like a freak car accident), exposing one thick black bra strap. Black sweatpants covered her legs and her feet were bare. Her fingers drummed on the mahogany wooden table and the girl’s mother took a sip of her tea.

“What I was saying is that you really should try and submit your college applications to all these great colleges!”

“Mother, most of them are in the middle of fuc-”

“Clarisse!” Her mother warned, getting up from her seat. “First off, watch your tongue. You know those words won’t let you into Heaven. Second, I personally picked out these colleges for you! What is it you wanted to be? A nurse?”

Clair cringed at the thought of wiping random patient's asses. “A neurosur-”

“A nurse! These wonderful, holy schools will keep you safe on the path to becoming an adult. Who knows, you might get a nice husband and you’ll bring me lots of grandbabies!” Clair’s mother chuckled at the thought while the young adult glanced sideways.

Clair and her rather… religious family lived in the quiet forest town of Wickgate somewhere in northern Pennsylvania in the United States of America. Her father was a local pastor there and she had four other siblings, the youngest only being three years old. Her mother worked as a daycare manager near the town square. Despite the small knit community, the local law enforcement warned others to not go into Wicker Woods due to strange reports of a creature brutally killing anyone that would ever venture too deep into the grove. Due to Wickgate being a prime spot during the Wars, no one even dared to test the limits.

Hell, Clair could remember her mother watching the news with her eyebrows tilted and her hand over her mouth. She even glanced over at the then eight year old girl and changed the channel to some puppet show thing-

“Ahaha, yeah,” Clair said. “I’m sure I will…”

“Oh goodness gracious me, look at the time!” Mrs. O’Riley chirped, glancing at the clock. “It’s almost lunchtime! Clair, go get the rest of your siblings. I think they’re outside playing.”

“Uhh, can’t you go get them yourself?”

“Stop being so selfish!”

Clair sighed and got up from the table, shuffling outside to see the rest of her siblings. Opening the screen door, she could see her little siblings playing around the large backyard that leads into the woods. Naomi and Tabitha, the twins, were busying playing with Toby, the youngest member of the family, with plastic dolls in the cool green grass. The second youngest, a boy named Levi, was staring into the trees. Clair felt the back of her head burst into pain as she could almost hear her mother scream at Levi for going near the woods.

“Hey! Levi! Get away from there!” Clair navigated through her siblings to grab her brother’s hand. “Mom said we can’t go in there.” A quick look at the boy’s quivering face made the adult roll her eyes as she dragged him back to the house. The rest of the siblings took notice and followed after them.

“Buh-but I saw a doggie!” he wailed.

The redhead female nearly stopped in her tracks. “It’s probably a stray, Lee.”

“It was smiling at me, Clarey!”

“Dogs can’t smile-”

By the time they got back, whole-wheat bread sandwiches were on the table with cheap plastic plates under the food. Clair let out a snort as she sat down in her own chair. Her father was nowhere to be found, probably still at the church. Mrs. O’Riley smiled and sat down, folding her hands.

“Clair, will you be a dear and say Grace with us?”

“No thanks,” she said.

“You know what? I don’t like your attitude today. We’ll have a discussion about this later, young lady. I- oh- goodness. I’ll start,” the mother closed her eyes, as did the rest of the kids. “Dear Lord, please bless this-”

“Doggy!”

Clair opened one eye and nearly jumped out of her seat when a large dog, probably Siberian Husky thanks to its markings on its fur suddenly appeared next to her. Piercing blue eyes seemed to unnerve her as the dog pulled back its maw, exposing disgusting, rotting human teeth. Clair gagged, which made her mother open her eyes.

“Darn strays! Get out!” she yelled, making a ‘shoo’ motion with her hands. When the dog didn’t move she grabbed a broom and smacked it on its head. Still no response. The canine didn’t move and a faint rumbled occurred in the house, making a few things shake.

“It’s the devil! Begone, foul beast!” Mrs. O’Riley began to sweat, a faintly worried look crossed her features and she grabbed a leather covered book. Clair gripped onto the table as the dog monster let out a piercing howl.

That was when the crashing noises happened.

Loud, angry voices resonated through the halls as windows broke and figures in strange SWAT-like uniforms invaded the once quiet home. The door was busted open and more guards came in, surrounding another man. It walked towards Clair, wearing a white suit with a red tie. The figure appeared to be male, tall and had dirty blond hair. Bandages were adorned on his face and his overall appearance somehow unnerved the redhead. A strange emblem was on his suit jacket and on a strange clipboard he pulled out. The human then proceeded to clear his throat, turning his attention to the distraught mother.

“Good day, Ms. O’Riley. My name is-” He glanced at his clipboard. “-Paul Lazarowitz and I am here representing the, uh, Fairmount and Maxwell’s Boarding School for the… Gifted.”

“WHAT IS THIS HELLSPAWN DOING IN MY HOUSE OF GOD?!” she shrieked, trying to bat the broom at the dog’s head again. This time it turned its head around at breakneck speed and with a powerful crunching noise it bit a part of the sweeping device off, snarling. Mrs. O’Riley yelped and held out her book in front of her, trembling. The dog moved over to the man in the suit and lied down, yawning.

This time, Clair could see all of its horrible, human-like teeth. Gross.

“How rude, our hellspawn over here has feelings too, Ruth.” Clair’s mother bristled and the bandaged man reached down to scratch a bitten up ear.

“Now, as I was saying- our scouting agent, Lächeln here-” he patted the dog’s back. “-helps us detect mutants out there affected by Der Großmann ever since the Wars plagued the, uh, Earth.”

“My daughter is not tainted by that beast!” Ruth placed the ruined broom in the trash, her brows furled and angry. “I checked and made SURE that she wasn’t like any of those freaks!”

“Those _freaks_ will play in a part to formally stopping the entities from… No. Ruth O’Riley, let’s cut to the chase. Can I sit down?”  
Before Clair’s mother could comment, Paul walked over into the living room, placing himself on the couch. Three SWAT figures followed him, as did the strange dog. Ruth hesitated, then placed herself on the couch across from the one Paul was occupying. Clair was just behind her, sitting in a red plush armchair.  
“Now, uh, you may be shocked, but we don’t have our doubts on your daughter. Lächeln is never wrong when he spots a-”  
“Just tell me already!” Ruth wailed, fidgeting with her fingers.  
Paul tossed a folder down with a strange animal on it, a white hare with multiple purple eyes. An unfamiliar word lay below it.  
“Your daughter, Clarisse Marianne O’Riley, is a part of the Remtaine House in our prestigious academy. A reality warper.”  
Ruth shook in her seat and Clair’s eyes widened. She had super powers she didn’t know of?! The young lady glanced towards her shaken up mother who had the same expression on her face eleven years ago. Her hand holding the mug shook, and she slowly took a sip.

And slammed it onto the table. Ceramic shards littered the wooden furniture and the floor, earning a shriek from Clair and the dog. The warm liquid made the young adult hiss as it wet her sweater and stung her skin. Ruth gripped the now separated mug handle so tightly that she could see a vein twitch in her skin.

Paul, on the other hand, laid still even though tea stained his pearl suit. He glanced towards a soldier who muttered something unintelligible towards him. The representative, in response, sighed and cleared his throat.

“This… is a normal response for every parent or guardian, Ms. O’Riley. Not everybody can accept the fact that their child has something beyond their control. That’s why the school is-”

“My baby isn’t pure.”

Paul perked up, an odd look on his face. “Ma’am?”

“Something… he tainted my precious baby!” Hot, messy tears fell from the older woman’s face. “I thought she would be normal… I didn’t ask for any of this! I… She’s a freak!” Clair sunk in her seat at her mother’s words, looking downwards. She unconsciously reached for Lächeln, petting him.

“I want my baby back!”

“This is not reversible, Ms. O’Riley--”

“No! **I said I want my baby back! You can’t do this to me!** ” Ruth began breathing heavily, her eyes darting back and forth as Paul stood up, snapping his fingers. One of his guards pulled out a strange looking device with a translucent liquid in it. It strode towards the panicking mother and jabbed it into the crease of her elbow. Clair reached out her arm to stop the armored figure but a glance from Paul made the girl retract her arm. Her mother briefly convulsed before falling back on the armchair, her infected arm twitching.

“This is the fifth parent that did this,” Paul murmured to himself. He turned towards Clair. “Please don’t be upset, not everybody can deal with the fact that-”

“She called me a freak. She must hate me.”

A pause. Paul flinched, “Now, that’s not true. She’s just shocked and scared. The valium serum will… help the fear go away, in a sense.”

“How do you know?”

Paul chuckled. “I’ve been in worse situations than this. An uncomfortable parent is much better than whatever I faced.”

There was a low groan from Ruth as she stirred from a quick unconsciousness. She rubbed her eyes and instinctively grabbed at her arm where the needle stabbed into her cream colored skin. Clair’s mother sat up in her coral colored chair and looked at the now shattered ceramic and also pale red colored coffee mug.

“Ah! I-I’m sorry, I didn’t know what came over me,” Ruth explained. She kneeled down and picked up some of the major shattered ceramic pieces while Clair felt shame overcome her. How embarrassing.

“Again, this is a normal reaction,” Paul muttered, opening the folder. Several brochures and pamphlets were inside and Paul quickly took them out. One had an image of some strange suited figure with a purple X above it reading “The War That Never Was - Der Großmann Emerges.” Another was a brochure for the school itself, with its name curved over a strange sigil similar to the one Paul wore on his suit. Paul looked on the inside of the folder, showed a guard, and placed it down.

 

**YOU FORGOT THIS, ROOKIE.**

 

was written in a purple color. Rolling his eyes, Paul moved the sigil brochure towards Ruth who opened it curiously.

Clair reached for the same brochure that fell out of its copy. Inside, it talked about a brief history of the academy and what if offered, as well as housing options and several alumni. Who knew that the current Prime Minister of Canada had powers once?

“Is this a college?” Ruth asked. “We already applied her to-”

“No no, this school caters towards people like your daughter. Confused children and young adults from ages 12 to 26, separately of course, are applied here from all around the world, even in such remote places like Alaska and… well, you get the gist. We want to protect them from any… remnants from the war and to help the sub- student grow with their power. Do you have any questions?”

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why are you doing this? Haven’t these kids tried to not… have these powers?”

Paul rubbed his temples, groaning. When he looked back up at Ruth, his left eye was twitching, presumably from stress. “I have said this a million times, Mrs. O’Riley, I-”

Something made Clair gag and she felt the air shift around her. Suddenly Paul had several legal-looking documents on the table and her mother had a pen in her hand. Something made Clair nervous, hadn’t her mother just vehemently said ‘no’ before whatever that was happened? She looked at her own mother, who had the same look as her daughter.

“And don’t worry, we’ll worry about the financing and medical issues!” Paul chirped, acting like there was nothing wrong. Ruth set down the pen and glanced over at the papers until her eyes widened.

“Death Warrant?! What in Heaven’s name is that?!”

Paul moved the cream colored paper closer, which turned out to be a packet, and the bolded **DEATH WARRANT** words attracted her gaze.

“Oh, that’s just for your daughter’s protection. We truly don’t know if Der Großmann isn’t listening to every word we say or tracking his… mutation in the kids we have. In short terms, this is to basically erase your child from society. It’s like they never existed.”

“Is that even legal?!”

“The United States government thinks so, we do a lot of… meddling with them and other governments since we ended the War. China and Russia are the only countries I know of that gave us any difficulty. Anyway, we’ll automatically assign a death to Clarisse, be it suicide, manslaughter, homicide et cetera-” Ruth cringed at this. “-and the government should destroy all records of them until they graduate from this academy. If not, we’ll persist with any force needed to ‘erase’ her.”

“I can’t contact my baby?”

“You can,” Paul said, making a gesture towards the large window. “ _They,_ you know, her friends and people like that, can not.”

Clair stood there, hands trembling. Her friends, all ten of them, wouldn’t be able to write or call her. Not that it mattered, but-

“Of course if you end up telling someone, then we’ll have to… _silence you.”_ Ruth jumped when she heard a click, it was just a guard setting his futuristic looking gun into safety mode, but it made both women sweat.

“Y-you condone this?” she asked.

“I’m a… representative of the academy. I can not speak for myself unless I’m allowed to.” Paul shrugged. “It’s just our policy.”

Ruth stood there for a few moments, contemplating the situation. Clair leaned back in her chair, nervously glancing over at the SWAT unit that glared at her through their helmets like she was about to jump and strike them all down.

“Can- can we wait until my husband is home to discuss this? I… we need to think this through.” Ruth asked, looking downwards at her lap.

Paul got up from his chair. “Oh thank God- I mean sure. We’ll be in your den if you need us.”

The representative got up and walked towards the next room over, the guards following him. Ruth waited until he was gone and looked behind her to see her siblings watching the whole spectacle from behind a doorway. She looked back at her eldest daughter, sniffed, and began to sob.

                            * * *

Clair’s father came back to his lovely home around thirty minutes after his wife Ruth broke down. While Walter O’Riley was a patient and holy man at best, he was ‘pleasantly’ surprised to come home and see his wife messily bawling with shards of ceramic surrounding her. Clair with a confused look on her face as well as her siblings, and at least five strangers in weird outfits in his house as well as a strange dog.

Paul had formally introduced himself and he quickly explained the situation that the eldest daughter was in. Instead of directly reflecting his wife’s odd reaction, Walter was silent and he quietly nodded along with Paul’s speech. After comforting his wife, he turned back to Paul, who returned to his spot in the living room.

“You… you think this is best for her?” Walt finally asked, his voice soft. Paul nodded as a silent reply and the two parents looked over at the blank faced young adult. “Just sign this, and your wonderful daughter can immediately start packing for a stay at our prestigious academy. No costs required.” Paul said, pushing the cream **DEATH WARRANT** paper to them. He held a pen out to the other man with a tiny slit near the grip of the white colored pen with dark red highlights.

Walter held up a finger and quietly discussed something to Clair’s mother that the young adult redhead couldn’t understand clearly enough. Clair tapped her leg impatiently against the chair she was in. A quick glance towards Paul revealed that he too was fidgeting in the O’Riley’s couch. Poor guy.

They talked for what seemed like hours, but Walter stopped talking and slowly nodded, facing Paul. Ruth gripped her husband’s arm as he took the pen and slowly began to write his name in cursive. He handed the pen over to his wife, index finger twitching, and she too signed her name.

“Ow!” Ruth hissed, yanking her hand away from the pen. Something silver had poked out of the slit and sliced the two parents’ index fingers. Without hesitating, Paul reached over and grabbed both of their fingers, squeezing them tightly together. A drop of crimson blood from each their fingers splashed on the paper and Paul let go of the appendages. Ruth hissed and grabbed a tissue to dab at her wound.

“What was that?! Did you sneak a-” Walter was silenced by Paul’s hand in a ‘stop’ gesture. He slipped the paper into a plastic Ziploc bag and closed it, handing it to one of the guards.

“Just a simple agreement thing so we know for sure that you understand what’s happening. Blood pacts are the way to go now I guess.” Paul explained, putting the pen somewhere inside his suit. “Don’t worry, the razor didn’t cut you too deeply.”

“Razor?!”

Paul smiled towards Clair now, ignoring the shock of her parents, and handed her a packet with the academy’s sigil and text that read ‘ **WELCOME TO** ’ at the top and ‘ **FAIRMOUNT-MAXWELL’S BOARDING SCHOOL!** ’ at the bottom of the symbol.

“Start packing, Clair,” Paul said, grinning. “Your time has come to join us! We’ll be waiting down here below.”

Clair nodded, grabbing the papers as she ran up to her room. A guard followed her and Clair felt sweat at the back of her neck. She opened the door and looked behind her to see the armored human standing there.

“Oh, don’t be alarmed. Ms. O’Riley. This is just a security procedure to make sure you don’t contact anyone about us.” The girl was surprised to hear a light feminine voice come out of the helmet. The female SWAT officer looked around and immediately froze when she saw Clair’s laptop open and on, displaying some sort of messaging app.

“Ms. O’Riley. Please turn off your electronic device.”

“What?” Clair looked over to see her open laptop. “Oh, that’s fine. Uh… I’ll just shut it off la-”

“Please turn it off.” Clair shrieked when her personal guard pulled out a rifle, pointing it at the laptop. A slight gesture made the gun click and a faint ‘whirrrrr…..’ filled the room. The redhead quickly slammed the device shut and nervously giggled at the now armed female who was still pointing her loaded gun at her. The armored female stayed still for a few moments. The tension in Clair’s bedroom was so thick that anyone could cut it with a knife. Finally, a quick click from the gun made her put the weapon back in her side.

“My apologies, Ms. O’Riley. We can’t have anyone contacting any outside… help. That’s why I’m standing here.”

“Oh,” Clair sheepishly said.

The packet contained a list of items that were approved, such as casual clothing (even though the packet stated that Clair would be wearing a school-assigned uniform), makeup, any electronic device (that would have to be monitored and authorized by the academy), headphones, books, drawing pads etc. While the don’ts included sharp objects, razors, bombs, weapons and fluid containers more than 16 oz.

She quickly packed her stuff, but just as she was about to stuff her phone in her suitcase, the guard snatched it from her.

“Sorry, regulations, you know.”

Clair grunted and resumed packing. After a few minutes, she finished, grabbing a striped travel pillow to wrap it around her neck. The guard ran downstairs and Clair dragged her suitcase over to the stairs, gently pulling it downwards.

Once she got to the living room, her family was standing there and Paul was by the open door, Lächeln still at his side. She grabbed a peacoat from the coat hanger and wore gray boots.

“My babyyyyy!” Ruth wailed, wrapping her daughter in a tight bear hug. Clair gasped for air and her mother finally let her go from her grasp. Fresh tears streaked her face and her father was close to crying as well.

“Remember, Clarisse, we’re always here for you. Be strong and do your best, my little reality warper!” Walter beamed, ruffling his daughter’s hair. She giggled and her little siblings hugged her waist.

“Ahem, sorry to interrupt this tearful event but, uh,” Paul said, surprising the family. His mouth was in a slight smile, but he quickly retracted it and gestured to the door. “This way, Clarisse. You don’t want to keep your new life waiting.” Lächeln took off towards the outside, and Walter leaned down towards Clair’s ear to whisper something.

“Please remember, don’t go into any forested area. And if you feel dizzy in _any_ forest, get yourself out of there as quickly as you can.”

Those statements almost gave Clair whiplash. She looked upwards at her father to ask what he meant by that, but his concerned look was replaced by a big smile.

“Off you go now, Clair!” he gently shoved his daughter towards the door. Waving goodbye, Clair stared at him in confusion as Paul gently moved her outside. “Good luck! We all love you!”

“Wait!-” The door to the O’Riley residence was slammed and Clair felt herself sag a bit, confused at her father’s words. She turned around to see a large limo and a guard open a door on the other side to grab at something. Shrieks were heard and the guard giggled.

“Hey Paaaaullll, we got a stowaway!” he jeered, pulling out a young girl with long brown hair, some of it sticking up in certain places. She wore a dark gray school uniform with a green plaid skirt and green striped tie. Her sneakers covered her stocking covered feet and legs. Paul’s eyes widened and he ran over. The two seemed to be in an intense argument while the girl trembled in fear. Leaving her suitcase, Clair walked over to see Paul screaming at an armed guard.

“What the fu- hell is wrong with you?! You don’t grab at her like that!”

“So what? Your little shithead tried to trail along on a secret recruit process for the academy!”

“Little shithead?!”

Clair slowly moved over to see the kinky haired girl sobbing, she covered her face with her hands and the young adult noticed that she barely had any eyebrows.

“So what if I grab her _like this_ -” The guard grabbed the child’s waist and shoulder and she _screamed_ , trying to get away from the man. Paul’s eye twitched, and he removed his glove from his right hand.

“What’re you gonna do, huh?! Rat me out to the Dean-” his sentence was cut off as Paul slammed his hand onto the guard’s helmet. He immediately let go of the child and stood there silently.

Suddenly, the guard howled in pain and grabbed at his head, his screams cutting in and out with a strange warbled effect. And in a flash, he was gone. Clair let out a gasp as the remaining guards stepped away from Paul, who put his glove back on.

“If any of you, ANY OF YOU, tell Nico when we get back-” Paul raised up his hand, twitching. “-You’ll end up just like your colleague here, deleted from time. Anybody I bring back from EVERGREEN is not to be touched.”

An eerie silence filled the space as Paul lowered himself to the child’s height, his voice softening. Clair shivered and moved to the other side of the limo as a guard opened up a door for her.

The inside of the limo was covered in leather, with seats wrapping around nearly everywhere. There were some drawers inside and she saw Paul and the same kid get inside. The car started up and Lächeln ran into the limo just as the door slammed shut. It started to drive away and the dog lied on a seat to Paul’s left while the girl sat next to Clair.

Lächeln nudged Paul’s hand and the human reached to a compartment, pressed a button, and pulled out a paper bag with blood(?) stained on the bottom of it.

“Fine, fine, you did a good job today, Smiles.” Paul reached inside and Clair almost puked when he pulled out a lower arm with the hand still attached to it. He handed it towards the dog and it ripped the bloody body part away from Paul.

“There we go, now I can get rid of this stupid tight suit.” Clair looked away and there were some slight fabric shuffling noises. After a few moments, she looked back to see Paul had changed into a dull, dark green tunic with the collar covering his chin and neck as well as dark brown slacks and shoes. He let out a sigh and leaned back, ignoring the gross messy and sloppy chewing noises coming from the demonic husky.

“So, now that I don’t have to, uh, stay on script, I’ll introduce myself. I’m Paul and I, ah, was a student at FAMBOS. As you saw earlier, I possess the power to delete time from my surrounding area and I can delete people from existence if I needed to.” He gestured over to the young girl sitting next to Clair. “That child over there is one of my three adopted kids, Karen. She can manipulate flowers and plants by touching them. I just rescued her on a mission that earned me a spot in the school’s staff.”

“...” Karen didn't move but she turned her head towards Clair, smiling slightly. “D-do you want a flower?” Clair opened her mouth to say ‘no,’ but when she glanced over to Paul, who stared her down. Not wanting to face his wrath again (or possibly be deleted from existence), she nodded.

Karen pulled out a potted plant, some tiny purple flower, and put her hand on it. Clair’s eyes widened as the plant began to grow to a large size, and Karen plucked a blossom off and gave it to the redhead who put it in her hair.

“Oh, thank you! What type of flower is it?”

“N...Nuh...Nightshade! Paulie said i-it was… was… venomous!”

Clair’s smile turned into a frown and she glanced over to the male.

“Poisonous, dear.” Paul smiled, turning towards Clair. “Isn’t she lovely? To think that just two months ago she… never mind. Are you alright, Kare?”

“Fuh-fine. I wanted to come with you so I… hid in the back. I stayed really still and then I heard a loud bang!”

“Was it the guard?”

“I think so? He had a hat on with red stuff on it and I could see purple in… in my head before I hid! I screamed and… you appeared, Paulie.”

Paul stiffened. “Purple in your head? Did… the person have a knife by any chance?”

“Uh huh. Why?”

Paul froze, his face confused as he pulled up a tablet and tapped something on it. Slipping something bullet sized into his ear, he started a call.

“Hey, Noct. It’s me- yeah. Yeah I got the girl, but that’s not important-- oh? Yeah yeah, whatever. Some haunted webcam is back. Okay, that’s not what I’m talking about. I think H is back.” Silence.

Clair glanced towards the window but a tug on her jacket. Clair looked at Karen who pressed a finger to her lips and pulled out a compartment of snacks. Clair’s eyes widened and she took a cheese cracker snack, mouthing a ‘thank you’ to the flower user. Karen smiled and grabbed some chips, putting the snacks away under the seat.

“Whaddya mean ‘he’s been decapitated, he can’t harm us anymore’?! He can still move hosts, you idiot!... Perfect bod- that demon can still find _more perfect bodies!_  Yeah. Yeah sure, enforce Protocol 5138:812915. I don’t even know why you’re asking me, but… Okay. Alright. Make sure you tell the Dean too, alright? ...Goodbye, Niko.” Paul shut the call off and put his face in his hands, groaning. He turned his frown upside down and smiled to Karen.

“Listen, they’ll take care of it, honey. Okay?”

“Okay.”

Clair could see they were on a highway now, blazing past all the other cars. “Where are we going?” she asked.

“Centralia, Pennsylvania. It should take us about… five hours. Get cozy.”

                                       * * *

After hours of staring outside, talking to Karen, talking to Paul, sleeping for a bit, and petting Lächeln, Clair laid back in her seat, huffing. Karen was asleep and Paul was filling out papers and sending them in a little slit, presumably to the academy.

“Uhh, Paul? What’s Evergreen?”

The male flinched. “A what?”

“You, uh, mentioned something about an EVERGREEN project back when you deleted that guy- what’s that?”

Paul looked at the now sleeping Karen, and gestured over closer to him. When Clair got close, Paul let out a sigh.

“I’m… not going to talk about all of it because of my nondisclosure agreement but… it was the name of a mission I had to do to be a representative. I had to pick up three kids, _my kids_ , from something that trapped them in this Colorado town that kept on looping. It’s hard to explain.

“I found Karen just about to be… assaulted by some male that I assumed was her father, but she made him choke to death on belladonna seeds that grew inside of him and- well. He’s gone now. The second kid had some reincarnation thing going on and would only wear a crude mask. She’s the most unstable of the group and… ugh. The last one is-”

“Hey, Paul. We’re here!”

“Oh thank God-” he shoved Clair away from his face, who accidentally landed on Karen. The sleeping girl woke up and squeaked, looking outside. Clair could see ruins of houses and the land bleeding some type of gas, the highway they were on had strange graffiti on it. The car suddenly stopped and the door opened. Paul stumbled out, along with Karen and Clair. Lächeln came out next, running straight ahead. A guard handed her a suitcase and the car door shit, driving off somewhere.

“This… doesn’t seem like a place for a school, no offense.”

“That’s because it isn’t, we’re looking for a Well.” Paul started to run across the pavement, trying to follow the dog, and Clair wrinkled her nose at the gas.

“What’s that smell?” she asked.

“Sulfur gas, that’s why we have to hurry and find this Well. We’ll die if we stand here too long.” Paul looked around, stepping into the ruined town. “Ah, there it is!”

He stepped away, showing the two females a large cobblestone well that could fit an elephant inside of it. Lächeln barked at it, wagging his(?) tail. Clair looked in it and could see fresh, clear water at the bottom. The husky moved past her and fell down, yelping. Clair choked out a scream, but Paul grabbed Clair’s shoulders.

“Now listen to me very carefully, you have to jump down to get to the academy. Just like our dog did.”

“What?! I’ll drown, or break my head open! Or worse!”

“It’s really f-fun- fun! It feels like you’re flying.” Karen chirped, oblivious to the older female’s fear.

“See, if a twelve year old can do it, so can you,” Paul smirked, gesturing to his adoptive daughter.

“So, you’ll fall, alright? You’ll experience vertigo and you _should_ see a blackened sky with dead trees everywhere. That’s where the academy is.”

“I’m going to hell?”

“I wouldn’t consider it Hell unless you mess with the Remnants. Let’s go, Kare!” He waved over the young girl, who giggled. Paul hopped over the well wall with one arm, moving his legs out of the way as he began to fall. A ‘wooooooo!’ came from the abyss as Karen jumped in after him, squealing.

It was only Clair and her suitcase left on the surface world. She heaved it over the stone well and watched it fall. Clair peered downwards squintng, and heard the slightest of footsteps.

Suddenly, the redhead was shoved downwards into the well, head-first. Clair screamed, trying to twist herself quickly to see some figure with a hat and something sharp.

“See you on the other siiiide! Hahahahaha! Woooo!” a masculine voice growled out, toned several times, echoing down the well. Clair began to panic when she saw him jump in, and she saw the water approaching her face. A quick internal prayer made Clair close her eyes, bracing for impact. Bracing for her head to slam on the stone, she awaited her quick death.

But it never came.

Instead, she phased through the water. Gasping for air, Clair flailed her arms in front of her to see herself propelling out of the well at a fast speed. Clair screeched wildly, watching the blackened sky slowly appear. She looked behind her to see nobody there-

-and she was suddenly in the air, above the well. Clair flailed her limbs, screaming as the gray grass came closer and closer until Paul snatched her out of the air, holding her bridal style. He put the young adult down gently. Karen had her suitcase and the husky was standing a few feet away from the well, its legs spread. It stayed very still, not moving.

“What do you thi-think?!” Karen asked.

“Someone pushed me and I felt like I was going to die…” Clair said, staring at the dog. “Is he okay?”

“Lächeln? Oh, he’s fine. Watch him for a sec.” Clair looked at the dog to see him shake, and then-

His fur rippled, going back inside his skin to a reddish yellow color. A mane covered his head and back, Clair could see drool appearing from where its mouth was and his ears flattened.

“Smiles? You alright?” Paul asked as it stopped moving. Suddenly, the dog whipped his head around and Clair screamed for the fifth time that day.

“Aiieeeeee! What is that thing?!”

The dog… beast walked towards her. “HI,” it said in a demonic voice. Eyes hollowed and piercing, Lächeln’s face was red and it had a snout with gross looking teeth below it. There was drool flooding its mouth and escaping from his teeth onto the ground.

“It talks!”

“Yeah,” Paul said. “but he can only say a few things like ‘hi’, ‘jeff’, and ‘spread the word.’ This is just his form here on Zh’aambras.”

“Sham… what?” Clair asked.

“It’s a separate dimension from ours. Those Wells were used by Der Großmann’s army, you know. Nowadays we made our home here to keep an eye on the Remnants.” Paul squatted towards the transformed Lächeln. “Okay, boy. You know where the Academy is?”

“NOT IDIOT. FOLLOW.”

“Good boy!” Paul said and Lächeln started to trot forward. Clair grabbed her suitcase and follow the dog and the other two humans. Clair eyed her surroundings: a black sky with no clouds, lots of red stars, and dead black trees. The grass seemed to sink under her feet and she felt like she was being watched. Her skin crawled and she could hear a faint static noise.

“How far are we?”

“Five… minutes!” Karen said. “I-It’s nice that you’re keeping up with our scouting agent’s pace.”

After a few minutes of walking, the forest began to thin out and the static noise from the back of her head slowly ceased. The group stopped in front of a strange building. A screen was on one side and Clair could see vent similar to one might see at a bank drive-thru embedded in the wall. Paul pressed a green button and a dial tone ran through the empty space. The screen suddenly turned on and Clair saw the back view of a man with shaggy black hair working away at something. One pair of arms was at a computer set with three screens and the other was holding a cup of coffee and sugar.

“Oh, come on,” the soothing, honeyed voice said. “I’m busy, can you come another tiiime?”

“Nico! It’s me, Paul.”

“Go away, Paul.”

Paul mock gasped. “Wow, did someone take a shit in your coffee? How rude.”

“I said, _go away.”_

“Stop talking to your butt buddy for five seconds and look at me!”

“Nyx and I aren’t even that close.” Regardless, the staff member swiveled his chair over so that Clair could see his face. Dark colored and thick eyebrows were above his eyes, and he looked almost cat-like. His black hair was brushed off to the side and his second pair of arms handed a coffee to the other pair. He took a sip and pointed at Clair.

“New arrival?”

“Yes. Let us in, please.”

“I don’t recognize her, can she come here in person?”

“No! We need to-- get the blood vial.”

“Sure.” Niko smirked, dropping something in a vent. A loud ‘SKKHHRREEEECHHHHHH’ noise made Clair cover her ears. A plastic test tube dropped from the ‘vent’ and Paul opened the door to it. He grabbed the vial and pulled out the pen from earlier. He took Clair’s hand and lightly cut her finger. The redhead hissed in pain and winced as Paul squeezed her finger to drop all the blood in the small vial. The representative put it back in, and sent it to his colleague.

“So, Paul. Who did you catch this time?”

“A reality warper.” Paul grunted. “It’s none of your busin-”

“What? We haven’t had those in… years. What kind is she? Time? Space? Creation?”

“It’s been seven hours, Nick. Seven. Hours. Maybe if you’re that nosy, you can ask her yourself!”

On the other side, the secretary stayed silent, sipping at his coffee. The vial finally appeared where he was and his two other arms grabbed a swab and some forensic tools. He did a few motions and somehow sent the blood into his computer. Clair watched her profile come up and the employee squinted at it.

“Let’s see here. Clarisse Marianne O’Riley, goes by Clair. You are nineteen years old, your birthday is the fifteenth of October, and you live, well, used to live in Wickgate, Pennsylvania?”

There was silence for a few moments and Paul elbowed Clair in the ribs.

“Uhh, yeah! That’s me!”

“You sound nervous.” Nico mused.

“I almost died.”

“Uh huh.” Nico mumbled, looking through her profile. “Has instances of the… Sickness? Oh- it’s just the flu. Haha.”

“You’re going through my medical history?!”

“This is basically like Customs back in the States, I don’t understand why you’re so surprised.”

“Y-you’re invading my privacy!”

“Cry me a river.” Nico look over at Paul. “Alright, I’ll unlock the building for her so she can get in. We already enforced the EM-H protocol so there may be security. Have fuuuun!”

Paul glared at the screen as the building doors opened. The group walked in and Clair glanced over towards the screen as Paul ushered her into the space.

“He looks… familiar,” Clair wondered.  
“Oh, him? That’s Niko Norcross. He probably sounds familiar because he’s very famous back on Earth. He did talk shows and all due to his likeable personality and expertise on the Remnants.” Paul waved towards a short haired receptionist as he walked through a large backscatter x-ray arch. His adopted child followed soon after and Clair walked through it with no problems, but then-

A loud alarm went off, startling the three humans as Clair felt something bump into her. Confused, she looked around until she saw a young girl, no more than the ripe age of eight materialize in front of her. With pale skin, she pushed the young adult off to the side and ran straight to the doors, yelling at something behind her.

Clair nearly shrieked when something flew past her and static nearly ruptured her eardrums. She fell to the ground as something large with a strange mask on with black features seemed to phase through her. The redhead felt something pull her up and shove her towards a bright light.

Slowly but surely, it faded into what looked like a large school lobby with a skylight that shone down on the three humans and one demonic dog. Clair noticed humans from elementary age to college students walking around in gray uniforms with certain colors as their highlights. Some of them looked absolutely normal while others had strange physical characteristics, such as wings or multiple arms. Some security guards similar to the ones that escorted Paul back in Wickgate were present, not caring that they were carrying guns in front of small children.

Karen let out an ‘eee!’ noise when she noticed a group of young girls walking towards her, smiles on their faces. They both broke into excited chatter as Karen waved at Paul goodbye.

“You like the place?” Paul asked, turning his attention back to the redhead. Clair, still gaping, slowly nodded and Paul chuckled. There was a loud ‘oof!’ from the girl group as the same albino girl that nearly made Clair go deaf talk rapidly to Karen and hand her a potted plant. She could see Karen slowly look down at the plant, glare at the albino, and slam it onto the ground. Everybody immediately went silent as the pale skinned girl stepped back from her ruined gift. Karen’s hand twitched and she shoved the other female, making her stumble back before landing on her behind. Karen stuck her nose in the air and proceeded to leave with her group of friends.

“No! Karen!” Paul yelled out. He let out a groan and quickly faced Clair. “I gotta go, Clair. Just head to the office- it’s upstairs onto your ri- Karen! That was very rude!” He took off after his adopted daughter, leaving the redhead back to herself. She took the suitcase and rolled it towards one of the stairs, cursing in her head at how there wasn’t just a normal escalator or elevator.

All the while she felt people staring at her as she traversed her way towards the large room. A few whispers made past everybody’s murmurs and she could feel eyes on her from all directions. Ignoring their stares and possibly harsh comments, she entered the school's office. The office had warm cream walls with slight misted glass for staff members to see outside in a mostly clear view. A banging noise was heard from the other side and Clair moved forward to a wooden counter.

“Uh… hi? I’m a new-” Clair was interrupted with a gesture pointing towards some strange desk cubicle next to a large mahogany door that read ‘DEAN’S OFFICE.’ Seated in the cubicle was a figure with a three screened computer in front of him holding a large newspaper. When the redhead got close enough, she could see the newspaper’s front headline that read ‘PANSEA AND PO-CHEN DEBUT IN MALGROVE ALONGSIDE FRIGHT NIGHTS.’ Clair waved a hand.

“Are you… Noct?”

A groan. He moved the newspaper down onto his lap and put his face in his hands, leaning forward. It was him alright, and his other two arms held a cup of coffee and were typing away manically at a keyboard respectively.

“Why yes. It’s me, the infamous ‘Nocturne.’ Ooh.” he waved his hands around and Clair looked away from his glaring green eyes.

“Sorry, Nico, is this who I go to for student orientation?”

Holding up one finger, he moved the coffee cup to his lips and took a long sip. The staff members were staring at her and Clair felt sweat grow at the back of her neck. Once Nico was done, he pressed a button and gently spoke into some speaker by one of his elbows.

“Oh, Dean Morrighan? I- Yes. There’s someone to see you, a new… student.” Clair tried to listen intently to the opposite speaker, but all she heard was some tiny feminine voice. “Yeah. Of course.

“Hey, what did you do with our… scouting agent?”

“Who- oh! I think he ran off somewhere.”

Nico rolled his eyes. “That damned mutt always does that…. Okay. You’re clear to go in. Don’t, uh, don’t be fooled by her appearance alright?”

Clair furrowed her eyebrows but nevertheless opened the door and walked into a room with warm brown walls and couches. A small woman was staring outside at large glass windows that overlooked a part of the academy and the two chairs seated in front of the desk looked like Clair could sink into them. A large laptop was on the desk along with a few belongings and a large paper in front of a large leather chair. The woman turned around, and Clair nearly gasped. It was an old woman, maybe a little older than Clair’s mother with short, stylized snow-white hair. She wore an expensive cream suit with a red tie and a black shirt. Letting out a brief chuckle, the elderly lady walked over and held out her hand towards the young adult. Clair took her hand and yelped when she felt a numbing pain go up her arm and intto her brain. She stumbled back into the comfy chair and rolled her head back as the older woman chuckled.

“Oh gosh, so sorry about that- that’s for safety _and_ for verification reasons, dear!” Her voice was light and she reminded Clair of her own mother but more… homely.

“Verficaaashuuunnn?”

“Just to make a final check that you do have these abilities! Don’t worry, you should be back to normal once Niko lets you out of my office. How are you, Clair?”

“Ah feel bushedddd….”

“It’ll go away soon- now here are your papers!” Blam! Slammed into Clair’s lap was a large handbook, several pamphlets that she recognized from early on with her mother and a keycard.

“Because of the increased security we have compared to other… Earth facilities, we need you to use this keycard to get in your dorm into the Remtaine house! Gosh, it’s been a long time since we had someone like that for twenty-five years….” Morrighan looked off to the distance and Clair rubbed at her temples with her knuckles.

“Excuse me- there should be a map with the location of where everything is in the school. We would give you a tour but it’s getting late!” Clair moaned, which made the old woman grab the ceramic tray and offer it towards the redhead. “Do you want some green tea? It will help you sober up, dear.”

“Nah.” Clair dragged herself over to the door as Niko opened it, stepping aside to watch the redhead tumble to the Remtaine dorm.

As soon as Clair stepped out into the hallway her mind immediately cleared up and she could feel her body being filled up with powerful vigor. She let out a sigh of relief and walked out of the main school building, heading for the dorms near the woods.

Finally, her new life could begin.


	2. PRAXIS

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> oh jesus here we go it's HABIT's POV  
> i hope i wrote him correctly  
> also this is short! v short

A few miles away from the long abandoned and quiet Remtaine house, the radio tower’s jumbotron screen came to life. It showed a strange logo with cute little dog heads above some type of demonlish text. It quickly cut away to two young adults, one wearing primarily brown and the other gray and pink. They were both seated on an expensive couch with a large tv behind them. The girl was fidgeting while the boy picked at something behind his eyepatch. Behind them was a large flat screen television that showed the logo. Odd.

“We’re on!” As quickly as they showed up, two little info boxes appeared below them. The male had a box that read ‘Porter Cheney’ and the girl had ‘PANSY.’ Just Pansy, no last name.

“Coming to you live from Malgrove’s radio tower, it’s Porter and me, Pansy! You know, we do have a special guest with us!”

“Oh, do we?” Porter asked.

“Uh huh, I’m sure you all-” Pansy gestured towards the viewers or anybody that might be watching the broadcast. “-know who they are! Please welcome, Nox!”

A strange stock clapping noise resonated in the room as the camera swiveled over to a much livelier Nico. Porter and Pansy were now sitting together and the both of them looked excited. The TV screen behind them switched over to a logo- some weird black cat and Nico made a small bow.

“Thank you, thank you. What an.. honor to be here.” Porter’s eye socket under his eyepatch twitched but Pansy quickly put a hand on his shoulder.

“Heehee, now our topic today is quite the shocking news-”

“I wouldn’t say a new student at our old school is breaking news, Pan-”

“We have a reality warper now.” Nico interrupted.

“WHAT?!” The hosts both said as Nico stared at them oddly. “A… a what?”

“You heard me, the first one in over twenty-five years. As a representative of the wonderful academy we were all shocked to discover one after we disposed of all the other ones.”

“I can’t believe this…. I thought we were the only ones still residing in Malgrove that had those types of powers since the Cleansing.”

Nico raised an eyebrow. “You know, I don’t remember seeing you two on the roste-”

Anyone watching this segment would’ve quickly noticed a quick dark red screen flash by with scratchy, illegible writing. Anyone with a fine TV signal, that is. From miles away, someone got up and slammed a fist onto their own television, not noticing the subliminal image.

“-Oww! What the fuc- what did you do to my he-” Nico’s voice was distant and the screen now focused on the two news hosts. Both of them smiled, oblivious to Nico yelling about something unintelligible. It cut to a static-filled shot again and something flashed across the screen. Suddenly, the three entertainers were back in their normal spots. Nico’s hair was stuck up in several places and in the corner, just barely hidden by the camera was someone behind Nico.

“Okay! Next up on our daily news is something quite odd-” The TV screen behind the two show hosts flickered to what looked like a purple ‘X’ and a… rabbit? “-There have been rumors going around that a certain demon has been resurrected from the dead and is out with a vengeance!”

The person watching immediately sat up in his seat.

Nico, meanwhile, shifted uncomfortably in his chair. The screen flicked over to two college-aged kids in the academy’s uniform. One had dark green as his uniform’s highlights and had dark blue hair with peach colored skin and the other one looked deathly pale, with messy black hair and a large scar around his neck. His uniform highlights were a pale pinkish color. Both of them looked happy, even if the other male was looking off to the side.

“Sonny Eckersall and Seward Mosley have been found brutally murdered just in the border of the Wretched Highland Woods, close by to Fairmount-Maxwell’s Academy.” Porter announced as it transferred to a gruesome crime photo. The two males were censored with some black scribble marks and they had deep gashes on them. Something with a hint of purple laid on top of Seward’s chest- a machete with purple tape wrapped around its handle.

“H-how did you get those photos?!” Nico yelped out.

“Now we understand that there’s been increased security all throughout the academy area; but we want your opinion, Nox. Do you think he’s back or is it some student playing a prank?”

The person watching from afar leaned in.

“I can...can’t say,” Nco mumbled.

“What?” Pansy squeaked.

“We already have good sources that can reassure us that he is gone for good. The War… already made him flee.”

Porter and Pansy stood there for a few moments, contemplating the situation. “Okay… then what if it’s a student playing a prank?”

Nico perked his head up. “No student of ours would ever do this! We… we taught everybody at the academy better than senseless violence.” His hands twitched and Pansy shook her head.

“Tell us, is HABIT back? We just want a one word answer.” Nico remained silent, breathed in, and stared into the camera- to anybody watching.

“No. This is all a great misunderstanding-”

“AW COME ON!” the watcher yelled. “I MADE SURE I DIDN’T LOSE MY TOUCH!” Unfortunately for him, POOCHUMS was a one-way broadcast and the hosts couldn’t hear him. He turned off the TV,  just as Porter and Pansy stood up and did some weird salute from crossing their arms in an odd shape, and rolled out of his chair.

With messy blonde hair, the stranger grumbled to himself and peered out of his window. His current residence was located not too far from the academy, but still in the woods. The cabin was messy, small, but it kept him out of sight for fifty years. Hell, he even had a room dedicated to his own weapons.

Reaching inside, he fumbled around in the darkness until his fingers came into contact with metal. He hissed gleefully and pulled out a large machete. Walking out the door, the stranger set out to find… someone.

The girl.

Yes, he knew fully well about her situation. Blah blah redhead blah blah special ‘god’ powers. He _was_ the one that pushed her down Centralia’s Well.

He jumped out just as he saw the girl move with that _time jumper_ and the dog, heading off to his place of residence: some crummy cabin that could somehow teleport anywhere he wanted to, like some weird time machine.

The man, unfortunately, couldn’t change the past, that was _someone else’s_ job.

Kicking open the wooden door, he grabbed a machete lying on the ground, dirtied with brown, dried blood and set off towards the Remtaine house. The blond haired male stuck to the trees, keeping an eye out for any security. Just yesterday he found a ruined but professional looking camera on his doorstep with the POOCHUMS logo on it.

The man cursed, seeing a security guard to the back of the house and two more at the front. They must have increased security from when he ‘visited’ a student back in northern Pennsylvania. All because of him, the HABIT. The blond slithered through the grass and leaped into the air.

Well, he did, not his body. It wouldn’t wake up for a long time. Instead, it fell to the grass in a fetal position, weird purple gas leaving his open mouth. The gas took shape, looked down at his host, and chuckled to himself.

The masculine entity 'flew’ through the air, watching the guard hesitantly look into the void that was Zh’aambras’s woods. Unlike the other guards that accompanied the campus property; he appeared to be nervous, jumping out of his skin every time something moved. Breathed. Anything.

The gas descended onto the man, entering through his nose. Almost immediately he yelped, grabbing at his head and scratching at his hair. The gas giggled, going deep into the reaches of his mind until….

The guard’s eyes, now in control of the same thing that had the blond male, turned purple, and he moved towards his other host.

HABIT had been supposedly dormant for fifty years since the accident. He had watched people die, be born, and die again since the aftermath of the War. It was easy hiding your traces after fleeing from an angry group of Valiants. Damned humans.

The guard hooked his arms under the unconscious male, dragging him behind the Remtaine house. Every so often he kept looking behind him to see if any of the other nonpossessed guards noticed something odd about their co-worker. With the two of them being oblivious, he increased his pace. Once HABIT was close enough to the back door, he hoisted the body over his shoulder and jiggled the door handle.

“ACCESS DENIED,” a tiny voice said from the right of the door. HABIT turned his head and noticed a strange device. It was a small screen with an eye symbol on it, and below it was a keyboard and below that was a slit. “OCULAR PASSCODE NEEDED. PLEASE SCAN WITHIN TWO MINUTES.”

He stood there for a few minutes before letting the guard slowly taking a bit of control, the purple fading from his brown eyes. Still controlling him somewhat, HABIT lowered his face onto the screen and used two fingers to spread his eyelids away from his eye. A choked scream erupted from his host’s throat, but HABIT clamped his jaws shut.

“ACCESS GRANTED. WELCOME, DARREN RANDALL.” There was an audible click, and HABIT opened the door again to see a backroom with less security.

Without hesitating, HABIT threw the blond inside, making sure his current host was holding the purple-taped weapon. With one foot in the door to prevent it from closing and locking himself out, he laid up against the wall and pressed the sharp blade into his throat. Just as he swiped at his throat to slit it (and threw the bloody weapon in with the blond man), he ejected himself out of his host and watched the slowly dying body fall. His foot loosened up from stopping the door and HABIT went inside, entering his other body.

It was unknown when or how HABIT came to possess Everett Haribon’s body, but it was better than living as a smoke cloud until eternity. Everett’s eyes turned purple and he grabbed the machete, striding through the halls.

He was confident, sure, but something about the guard’s placement seemed off. It was almost like there was a trap waiting for HABIT and that he would be taken down to the Labs again, just like his other… accomplices. Regardless of this small fear, his ears picked up the sounds of someone talking and ducked behind a wall.

Some woman was busy talking to the-girl-he-pushed-down-the-well. With loads of folders in the redhead’s hands and the receptionist talking quickly, he watched the two intently, gripping his weapon.

“Oh, here- I’ll even open up your dorm for you! You’ll have the whole… house to yourself!” the receptionist chirped, pulling out a keycard. HABIT flattened himself up against the wall and watched the older woman walk past him, humming. He rolled his eyes and followed her. She slipped the card into some slit above the metal doorknob, waited until a little light turned green and the door automatically opened.

HABIT stood up and ran towards the door, but he ended up collapsing on the carpet floor because _that bitch_ was in the way. She peered down at his form, eyes widening at the dried blood on his sweater and reached for the doorknob.

The demon kicked out his feet, attempting to throw the woman’s legs under her. He was successful and dived to the woman’s throat. He brought the lady up with him, wrapping his arms around her neck to choke her out. She struggled, but HABIT gently shushed her, watching as she slowly faded into unconsciousness.

He kicked the body into some supply closet. He would have to deal with her later.

“Hello? Is everything alright down there? Should I come down?” Shit. HABIT began to sweat, running towards the open door. He poked his head out, and in the best female voice he mustered up, said:

“Oh, yes! I want to give you the grAA-” his voice briefly cracked. “-aand tour! Teehee!”

There was silence from the lobby area but the sound of shuffling footsteps made him walk towards the dorm’s kitchen, sitting down at one of the chairs, his back facing the door. HABIT pulled out his weapon… and waited.

The footsteps reached towards his ears, and with a snicker, HABIT stood still, waiting for the girl to reach out towards him.

“Uh- I don’t think you’re supposed to be in here,” her voice wavered, and out of the corner of his eye, he could see her slowly reach for a cabinet. There was a grunt and HABIT watched a knife fly by him.

That’s when he got up and turned around.

With bloodstained clothes and dark circles under his purple colored eyes, HABIT stood at five feet and six inches. For some strange reason, there was a jagged scar on his neck. The girl stepped back when she saw him, but ripped out another knife and pointed it at him.

“S-stay back! I’ll call security!” HABIT smiled. She was scared, he could already feel the adrenaline running through his veins.

“Aw, come on. I just want to talk with you! Why don’t you put the weapon down and-”

Whoosh.

This time, she threw it close enough on his face to scratch his cheek. It was nothing deep, but HABIT hissed and gripped his face. He looked up again to see that her posture had changed and _oh she was going to escape._

“You fucker!” HABIT slashed towards the female, shrieks emitting from her when he attacked her. She stumbled down, but got back up on her feet quickly, running away from the demon.

HABIT held up his machete, slowly walking around the dorm to find anything that might’ve shown where she ran to. His fingers drummed against the bladed weapon’s handle, humming something. He scrapped his feet across the floor, walking to a wooden closet in what would be the girl’s personal room. HABIT paused, and then whipped around, diving his weapon straight into the wood. There were no screams of pain, and when he pulled out the blade, there was no blood on it.

HABIT twitched. She couldn’t have escaped.

He breathed in, cracking his neck. This was fine. He could just tear the nicely placed room apart looking for one ‘god’ person. This was going to be all okay.

A sneeze from under one of the beds caught his attention. Then a gasp. Looks like he didn’t need to. Yay.

He squatted towards one of the beds, and the girl flailed around in her fetal position. Her eyes were wide as he dragged her out by her leg. Once out, he slammed his heel onto her spine, causing the girl to gasp and gag. She coughed out blood onto the rug, staining the color, and struggled to get up.

“Wh-what the fuck are you?!” she gasped.

“Something amazing,” HABIT said.

“That’s not am-”

CRACK!

The girl was then blown back again to the wall, she coughed up more blood and the warm liquid landed on her peacoat. Despite her voice sounding steady, she looked terrified of the demon in front of her. Just as HABIT went up to punch her again, she screamed. Flailing out her fists in front of her in an attempt to defend herself, HABIT saw something _shift_ around her hands.

Indeed, a strange purple light had taken the form of a ball and had slowly began to form a shape in the girl’s hands: an aluminum baseball bat. The light vanished and it plopped into her grip. She was just as confused as HABIT was, gawking at the newly-formed weapon.

“What the fu-” HABIT never got to finish his sentence. The redhead stood up and swung at his head, causing the demon to collapse. Blood flowed from his head as the female attempted to bash his head in, still screeching erratically.

“What is wrong with you?! You’re attacking a defenseless man!” HABIT snarled, blocking his head from the girl’s assault.

“GO AWAY!” was his response back. Her grip on the bat never loosened and just as HABIT felt bruises on his arms forming, the air shifted once more. With a flash, the weapon was gone. The girl looked at her hands again, then back to HABIT.

“Strikeout!” HABIT waved his hands around and the girl flinched, waiting for another attack. HABIT stood up and started to clap, laughing. The female fidgeted in place, narrowing her eyebrows.

“Hahaha- wow! If you can attack someone like me with little to no hesitation, you can take care of a little problem I have.”

“I don’t even know who you are!” she spat. “You come in here, make this nice guide disappear, nearly _kill_ me and for what- your own self-satisfaction?! I j-just got here!” More coughs, HABIT took a step back from the girl.

“Oh come on, your wounds will heal eventually. Then we can talk about business!”

“You nearly broke my spine.”

“I can fix that, just give me five seconds.” HABIT exited his host’s body, making the girl yelp. The smoke entered the girl’s mouth, and she gagged as HABIT got to work.

“There,” he said, entering back into his own host. “Only took a few seconds, don’t worry. You aren’t good enough for my experiment.”

Clair wiggled her fingers, stepping back as she looked down on herself to see that she had been... healed to normal? The demon stared back at her, tapping his foot.

“God, you’re slower than… never mind. Now that I fixed you up, you owe me.” HABIT said.

“Again, I don’t know you.” she reasserted.

HABIT snapped his fingers. “Well, gosh, looks like we’re going to have to take care of that! For the meatbag I’m currently inhabiting, it’s Everett Haribon. For a handsome beast such as myself-” his eyes flashed purple. “-you can call me HABIT! Now, how about you, new hitman in training?” HABIT’s voice distorted at the last sentence.

“...Clair. Clair O’Riley.”

“Excellent! How about you unpack and then we can talk business!” Before Clair could say anything, he winked at her and opened the door to her living room-

-to find himself back at his cabin. He could just imagine the look on that human’s face. Snarling captured his attention as he moved over to his kitchen. Other than the human foodstuffs and some entrails in paper bags, the only alarming sight was a large, human-sized, hairless creature with long fingers that ended with sharp claws.

“RAKE! Get down from there, you little shit!” HABIT said, spittle flying out of his mouth at the creature. It hissed back at him.

“Who said you can get in here? Get out! What are you even hiding from anyway?!”

The thing pointed outside the window, and HABIT squinted towards the glass to see a human walking towards his home. The demon silently turned towards RAKE, and made a small gesture, grabbing a knife.

The human ventured closer to HABIT’s house, and now the demon could see that the masculine figure wore silver robes with dark, skin-tight pants underneath it. A neckerchief covered his neck and it fell past his back.

“Heyyy stranger!” HABIT said, giggling. “You lost? Why don’t you come inside and-”

“Fiiiind youuuu……” the robed man moaned.

“Yeah you, uh, found me. I’ll ask again, you slow or someth-”

“You must see it to become REAL!” He suddenly lunged forward, catching the demon by surprise as the man fell face first onto the ground. And pulled out an axe.

In some sort of primal rage, the cultist threw himself towards HABIT. The demon stepped off to the side, as he watched the man struggle to pry the weapon from the ground. The back of his neckerchief had a strange ‘G’ on it.

It was a cult. The 5363643rd cult he had seen in Zh’aambras, but the strange thing was that the cult member looked disoriented and confused.

“Now, buddy. That's no way to talk to a.. Friend like that. Ha. Why don’t you tell me where-”

“Begone, _Haase,_ ambassador of the Augur!”

HABIT bristled. _Uh oh._

The cultist let out a battle cry, throwing his axe towards HABIT, who ducked and slashed at his face. The cultist was too slow and ended up getting his face scarred up. He screamed, his hands hiding his face when HABIT brought his fingers up to his mouth and made a short whistle.

All was quiet. The cultist shut up, wincing at the noise. Heavy breathing was heard from inside HABIT’s house, but RAKE threw himself out of the door, screeching. It looked around wildly until it found its next victim. He screamed.

As RAKE leaped towards his next meal, HABIT knelt on one knee, holding up his opponent’s weapon. The skinless human… the creature held the cultist in place as the struggling human raged.

“You forgot something,” HABIT said, smiling as he pointed the weapon towards the religious member. He drove the weapon straight into his stomach and RAKE shrieked in what would seem like joy.

“Ghrrk…. Keep… keep your days counting you spawn of Z-” the cultist heaved before he could finish his last word, and slowly turned to face HABIT. “The… Gathering will bring in a new age once this pitiful dimension is recycled… and we’ll… join….”

HABIT slammed the axe’s bladed end onto his face.

***********

Thighs almost tasted like beef. Almost.

After he had splattered the cultist’s face everywhere, he had given most of the body to RAKE for consumption while he ended up giving in to his human-eating tendencies. It had been a long time since he dined on something so ‘exquisite.’

Something about that cultist put HABIT off at ease though. He didn’t have to worry about anything, he could just always easily end it. The only concerning part was that it _somehow knew who he was_ and that it only became aggressive when HABIT was in its sights; even when HABIT kept himself incognito for fifty long years.

That was off-putting.

Good thing he had a meat-shield now.

HABIT hummed and opened up his cabin door to find himself back in the Remtaine house, in someone’s bathroom. The demon jiggled the doorknob and opened it to see Clair staring at him, her mouth full of instant noodles. She had changed out of her outfit to a tank top and sweatpants, her hair tied into a low ponytail.

“Hey, hitman! How ya doing?” HABIT chirped.

Clair choked on her ‘dinner.’ “Where the fuck did you come from? My dorm is locked!”

“Magic! Now we can finally discuss our plan!” Clair opened her mouth to argue but HABIT pulled out a ‘rusted’ knife and she closed her mouth.

“See. I got a few people that more or less think of me as an… annoying little insect that needs to be crushed. In fact, I ran into one of my fans just before I checked in on you.”

“Fans?”

“Eh, more like some zombie cultist member- but that’s not the point. I’ve seen what you can do so far, and I think, if you help me, I’ll be able to maybe throw in a…” HABIT scratched at his neck scar. “...added bonus and you’ll become God!”

“Are you kidding me? It hasn’t even been a day yet and I just got these… powers. Can’t you ask somebody else?” Clair stood up, scooting away from the demon.

_“I’m sure a normal human can’t help me kill some all-powerful beings-”_

“No. I’m too tired for this shit. Good night.” The redhead threw her empty styrofoam cup of noodles away and speed walked towards her bedroom. HABIT sputtered out something, then quickly followed behind her.

“Come onnnnn! You’re gonna miss a once in a lifetime deal! School is stressful!”

“No!” The door was slammed in his face.

While this wasn’t the first time anybody refused his offer, it was the way the girl handled it that made him angry. He clenched his fists, ready to slam down the door and make her accept his generous offer.

But HABIT was better than that. First impressions are everything.

He found himself back in his cabin again, feeling his host slowly start to shut down from tiredness. HABIT barely made it to his ‘bed’ (a messy queen sized thing with only a purple comforter) before his body collapsed.

Sure, the demon didn’t feel tired, but he had to maintain his host’s body somehow.

He could’ve sworn he heard some whispery song before ‘Everett’ fell asleep. It sounded oddly familiar.

***********

HABIT fell out of bed, cursing.

Banging noises made him perk up, as he quickly put his hat on and moved towards the door. As soon as his hand hovered over the doorknob, there was a clattering noise.

The demon opened his cabin door. Just like yesterday, something was left on his doorstep. A small vial of purple liquid, with a piece of lined paper on top of it.

‘ARE YOU READY FOR YOUR WALK-IN? DO YOU WANT ENLIGHTENMENT FROM THE GANGA DUO? IF SO, CONTACT-’

This cult shit was really getting to him. HABIT threw the vial away into the woods. A chime ran through the campus and HABIT looked off to the distance to see humans with gray school uniforms going around the buildings. The demon looked down at the note, then towards the humans. He stuffed the note into one of his pockets and ran towards the campus.

A flash of red made him jump towards a building to hide. When he peeked out to see who it was, he smirked once he saw his ‘hitman.’

She was walking towards class wearing a dark gray suit with light purple highlights and bow. Clair was happily talking to some other girl with a pink bob cut. The latter girl had pink highlights instead of purple and presented a cupcake towards Clair. HABIT cringed when his hitman took a bite of it. There were no other people around them.

HABIT quickly looked around, made sure nobody was watching and moved up to the redhead and her companion. His eyes flickered back to a light brown as he wrapped a hand around her.

“Heyyy, the first day of school, huh?” Clair yelped while HAB- Everett let go of her shoulders.

“What the- I thought I told you to-” HABIT gestured over to the pink haired girl and made a quick ‘slice’ gesture, causing the girl to shut her mouth. “You scared me, Ev-Everett.”

“Hey- who’s that?! Is he your friend? Is he nice? Do you want a cupcake?” Clair looked down at the baker, munching her cupcake. Her dull blue eyes shined this time, staring at HABIT.

“Oh, Mena- this is Everett. He’s… visiting.” HABIT widened his eyes and yanked Clair’s arm.

“What are you talking to her for?!” He whispered into her ear. “She turns people into _sweets! You’re eating a person!_ ”

“So? She told me that she actually made this cupcake- though it does taste a bit warm. Get off of me!”

Mena squinted at HABIT as the baker ran off, running towards a group of girls heading towards a tall chrome building. Clair moved to some other building but the demon grabbed her wrist. She tried to pull her arm away but HABIT pulled her closer.

“If _anybody_ asks what happened last night, tell them that your House Supervisor passed out-” Just as he said that, HABIT vanished, leaving the girl confused and frightened as she walked towards a slate complex.

As HABIT reappeared back on the campus grounds, he tensed, watching for any guards. Once it was clear, he walked into the town of Malgrove. Usually, it was quiet, but when the demon reached a door to a questionable business, something whirred to life.

POOCHUMS was playing again, no big surprise, but the fact that it seemed to be timed with when HABIT was just about to enter into this building.

Instead of showing the regular broadcast, it flickered between a few frames before cutting to a shaky point of view at some forest. HABIT could only watch as it stopped at some large draconic effigy before bowing down to it, screaming.

The screams were cut off and Porter and Pansy were now standing up. The TV behind the two ‘idols’ was filled with static but the two continued on about something odd.

“Yeah- we could always resort to-”

“We just need to throw in a bit more references to y’know, those horror film-”

“Achieve heaven through the-”

The TV screen glitched behind them and it flickered over to some symbol before the jumbotron _began to screech._

HABIT covered his ears and ran into the building, some fast food restaurant, and sat down at a booth seat, gripping at his ears. Blood filled his mouth from when he bit his tongue but that noise wouldn’t stop.

“Sir, are you alright?”

HABIT blinked twice and the noise was gone. An employee had come over and he looked concerned, not caring that some random stranger came in.

“...I’m fine,” HABIT croaked out.

“Oh- well if you need anything you can always-” HABIT glared up at the poor minimum-wage working employee and he walked back behind the counter.

HABIT rubbed at his eyes, slouching at the booth seat. It immediately set off so many red flags in his head that something… cult-like wanted to contact him and eliminate him off the face of the Earth.

Something the Valiants couldn’t do.

It sure was a good thing that HABIT managed to find a successful, even if she was unwilling, candidate.


	3. EXTUS

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Back to Clair's POV again! Expect the change from HABIT to Clair often.

Clair looked behind her back again for the fifth time that day. Even when she had met up with Karen and Mena she had to double check to make sure that HABIT wasn’t behind her. And almost every time that she did it, the girl could feel a small chill.

“Your friend was really weird!” Mena said, running up to the young adult. “Like, he’s soooo creepy! Are you okay?”

_stomped on her spine, making her choke up blood and her back feel like it’s on fire---_

“Fine, I’m fine,” Clair said, her voice wavering.

_couldn’t think straight, bat suddenly appeared in hands and the killer intention was present--_

Opening the entrance to a building known as the ‘Koball Hall’ (what an odd rhyming scheme, the girl thought), hundreds of students gathered in the lobby of the building. Most of the children or young adults had green highlights to their uniform while she could see red or blue highlights.

“Gods, Mena, you dragged another person to your clique?” An orange haired girl with a gray and pink uniform said, despite her face being streaked with tears.

“That’s pretty ironic coming out of your mouth, Talia. Why can’t you go back to crying about your dead ‘brother?’” Clair gasped and Talia sniffled before running off, bawling.

“Th-that wasn’t very nice…” Karen whispered.

“Oh, she’ll get over it!” Mena waved a hand and glanced to Clair. “That was Talia Dahlman, she… was in the same predicament as I was when I first came here. But we’re all fixed up now so-”

“Fixed?”

“...Like, uh- we couldn’t control our powers and now we can! Kind of…”

Something crackled to life and the students waiting in the lobby immediately stopped talking.

“Would you all head off to your classrooms marked in your… syllabus? Keep in mind your teacher will request a ‘display’ from you later on. Have fun, su-students.” Niko said, shutting off the loud speaker. There were shuffling noises and Clair turned around to see Mena rummaging through her new friend’s bag.

“Oooh! You have the same class as me! Let’s go- bye Karen!” Unlike HABIT’s tight grip, Clair could feel almost secure when Mena dragged her to Rm. 1111.

Mena kicked down the door and let go of Clair’s arm. Another redhead female waved towards Mena and the food manipulator moved down the row of seats next to her. Being new, Clair followed the baker with her new friend.

“Look, it’s my new special friend! Clair!” Mena said, gesturing to the reality warper. Her other friend smiled.

“Aw gosh, we got another helper for-”

“No! How rude, April- she’s not going to be involved in the business. Anyway, that’s April Bloomsburg, she’s from Houston. The staff here really don't know what she has yet but she helps out with my duties at the bakery!”

“Does she turn people into food too?”

April gasped. “Ah would nevah!” She replied in a thick country accent. “Miss Pinkerton’s talent is somethin’ ah could nevah replicate!”

“Talent-”

There was a slam and April jumped. A man with a gas mask erratically shuffled towards some pedestal, standing up fully. With a black trenchcoat and hat, he waved up his hand where Clair could see a weird square device on his wrist.

“Welcome… to manipulation class. I am Professor Fournier, and welcome back, any returning students!” Cheers ran out and Mena stuck out her fist and screamed, “YEAHHH!”

“This class will let you try and work with any power manipulation you may have. Since this is the beginning of the school year, I’m going to have to ask each and every one of you to go up to the front of the room and demonstrate your worth.” Groans ran through the room and the ‘teacher’ slammed his fist on the podium, causing the device on his arm to screech.

“Oh shaddup! You’re all dead to the government back in your world so you can’t go back now! Who’s up first?!”

Silence. Someone coughed and Clair felt sweat grow in the back of her neck. There was something wrong with their ‘professor’ but she couldn’t put her finger on it.

“You! Yeah- you in the orange!” Fournier pointed at Talia, who was being comforted by another student. “Stop crying for five fucking seconds and show me what you got!”

Talia whimpered and walked down the risen seats to stand in front of anyone. Mena glared at her and April curled her lip in disgust. The orange haired girl breathed and whispered something to the gas mask man. He nodded briefly, walked over to his desk and pressed a button, muttering something unintelligible.

The door opened again and Niko ended up dragging someone in with a bag covering their head. Their muffled screams made Clair jump out of her seat, but Mena pulled her back down, shaking her head in disapproval.

“What’s that?!” She whispered, eyes staring at Niko manhandling a hostage.

“A rebelling Remnant,” Mena replied. “Or a trespassing human, it’s usually the latter, don’t worry!”

Niko used one of his free arms to wave at the students as he dropped the human and pulled off the cloth. With bloodshot eyes and ragged brown hair, Clair felt bile rise in her throat.

“Well Talia, here you are! Work your magic,” the professor said, winking at her. Niko smirked at him and moved back to the wall, leaning on it.

Almost immediately, Talia’s appearance began to change. Her eyes turned black and her mouth pulled back to reveal a set of sharp teeth. She hissed and swiped towards the human. There was a flash and Talia appeared farther from the human, behind him. She stood to full height and the human rolled on his side, exposing his frozen face of terror to the students. Clair nearly puked.

“Excellent! Lovely, we got a soul eater here- your average Aminakinesis user!” Talia pulled out a pale green globe from seemingly nothing and consumed it, reverting to normal. A few people clapped and Mena slowly applauded.

Time passed and more kids came up to volunteer under the jurisdiction of Niko and Professor Fournier. If it was needed, Niko would leave for a few minutes and come back with a bound, screaming human. Every time they died, Niko would move them over into a corner and spray the corpses with something that filled the room with a ‘homely’ smell.

Clair dozed off and the muffled voices grew louder when the teacher got up and stood right next to her screaming in her face.

“I CALLED YOUR NAME, FRESH MEAT! GET DOWN HERE!” Clair yawned and quickly moved down to the bottom. Mena sat up in her seat and watched her new friend.

“Haven’t seen you here before- what’s your name?” Fournier calmly asked, a stark comparison to what he was like before.

“Clair?”

“Oh okay, Clair. Judging by your uniform, you seem to be one of the few reality warpers we have. Why don’t you demonstrate your Godly powers towards us?”

Clair thought back to the time when HABIT nearly killed her. All the raw energy that surrounded her when he beat the sh!t out of her and nearly left her for dead. How he nearly-

There was a muffled bang as Clair turned her head slightly and she flinched.

HABIT was there. Smiling and staring at her. He waved, his hands covered in blood.

Clair’s blood began to boil as he tried to get her attention. Her fists began to shake and that nice energy came back.

“Finally! Now show us-” the professor’s voice droned out into a hum as Clair could feel the rage consume her. All the chaotic energy she felt when attempting to kill HABIT.

Outside, the demon’s grin widened. He held something up that caused the girl to snap. Something in a photograph. Swiping her arm at the window, a section of the wall suddenly warped and it jutted out to block HABIT’s view. She could see him visibly jump before his view was obstructed. Still, in a blind fury, the now ‘sentient’ wall piece slammed into the glass.

“Okay, okay- calm down. That glass window won’t hurt you!” Fournier said, snickering under his breath.

“I saw something out there! Something purple!” Niko perked up and moved towards the window that wasn’t smashed in.

When Clair looked to her ‘audience,’ most of them stared at her in horror. Mena was the only one applauding, screaming some cheers while the room filled with murmurs.

A gunshot was heard outside and Niko moved back inside, holding a shotgun. “We’re going to have to increase security again, the girl isn’t hallucinating.”

“Aw shit! Finally, something exciting happens around here. Go sit down, ragey,” Mr. Fournier said.

Clair, still feeling the rage inside her body, moved back to her seat just as the bell rang out, dismissing the students.

Without hesitating, Clair ran out, her fists clenched. She ground her teeth, bumping into something small. When she looked down, she saw a girl with a crude female mask on her face wearing a torn yellow dress with little red flowers on it.

Instead of an ’I’m sorry!’, the girl made a screeching noise and ran down the halls. Paul moved towards her, holding some young kid with a bandaged face.

“Tiara! Get back here, you’re gonna scare the- Oh. Hello, Ms. O’Riley. How’s class?” The kid squirmed in Paul’s grasp and he set the child down. The small male ran off to where Tiara ran off to, his sleeves dragging on the floor.

“My teacher’s an asshole.”

“Oh- Fournier? I don’t even know why we still have him, we put him on parole after the incident with Herschel… You know he’s a Remnant?”

Clair looked back behind her to see students piling out of the classroom door. “What?! I thought they were all dead.”

Paul shrugged. “Some of them are, some of them… have been accepted by the higher-ups for whatever reason. In fact, there’s a few Remnants that are students that just escaped back to our dimension. I wouldn’t know.”

There was a grunt from the wall behind them and Paul turned around to see the covered-up child holding out Tiara in his arms. She lay completely still, but squirmed when Paul walked up to them. When Clair followed the staff member, she could see that where the child’s legs would be were embedded in the wall and a dark green shimmer was seen ‘cutting’ his exposed torso to the wall.

“Oh, thank you, Marvin.” Paul smiled. “Did she… do anything while you moved through the walls?”

Marvin shook his head and Paul sighed in relief.

“Good good, uh… okay. Clair, these are my _other_ kids I talked to you about the other day. Tiara and Marvin, they’re ten and eight respectively.” Marvin waved towards the redhead while Tiara slowly turned her head to face Clair.

“Tiara’s a… special case. She can’t exactly die but at the same time, she can’t go through her infancy. She’s what the staff like to call a ‘rebirther.’ Marvin just likes to phase through walls and is a shadow manipulator.”

“Are you all Remnants?”

Paul flinched. “I wouldn’t exactly use that term with me-”

Niko popped his head out of the classroom. “Looks like you were right, Paul, someone’s been tampering with the campus… stuff again.”

“I told you! I thought you already increased security!” Paul shrieked. He cleared his throat and turned to Clair. “Look, this is a bit personal sooo... how about you take my kids and yourself out of here?”

Clair stared at him before making a huffing noise. She gestured to Tiara and Marvin, hoping that the two non-verbal children would understand what she was trying to say.

As she walked down the hall, footsteps echoed in the now-empty hall as she stopped and moved closer to the corner were Niko and Paul were talking in hushed whispers. The two children followed her, but after mouthing ‘no,’ Tiara ran off towards a door with Marvin following shortly after her.

Clair leaned in, trying to hide while listening to the two staff member’s conversation.

“Listen, I did add security. I made sure there were multiple guards at every house, building, et cetera. But I’m sure you can imagine my face when I found out that whoever was assigned to the back door of the Remtaine house had his _throat slit open and showed signs of possession.”_ Niko hissed, his lower two arms turning into fists. “Next comes more instances of guards having their eyes stabbed and just yesterday I found some cultist’s corpse!”

“So it’s a cult based off of H-”

“Shut up- no. I’m saying it _is_ him.” As they continued to talk, Clair’s heart began to race and she slowly put the pieces together. HABIT had planned this, and for some reason, it involved her odd powers.

“You know what else I found out? I checked the security tapes inside the school buildings in case that thing broke in. Turns out the cam for the room where the Spear is on display ended up not working for three hours last night. The casing is fine, nothing was broken, but if I recall, I heard scratching noises.” Clair moved away from the two, back down the hall towards her second class, her brain swimming in her own thoughts. What was going on?

Walking past a room, Clair stopped and stared at something in it. Encased in a large, thick, glass box, a spear floated in place. While the main gray part sharpened into a point, the spear also split into two, one side red and one side black. They twisted around the gray part of the spear and jutted out into sharp points.

“Oh, you lost?”

Clair flinched, closing her eyes shut and putting her arms up to shield herself. After a few quick seconds, she corrected her position to see that Niko was staring at her oddly.

 “Awfully jumpy,” he muttered, looking at the spear. “Did you get distracted by the Nagakos Spear?”

“That’s the spear?!”

“Why of course, it’s not the real one, but it’s a staple weapon used in ending the War. I’m sure you heard of it managing to defeat of one Der Großmann’s allies.”

“How so?”

Niko grimaced. “Decapitation. He never stood a chance and it was the only way to…”

Another chime ran through the school and Clair was already gone.

**************

“I c-can’t believe you get to eat out, Paul says I can’t…”

A few classes had passed and Clair met up with her Mena, her sidekick, and Karen. Mena was rocking on her feet and she held green dollar bills in her hand, clenching the paper. The four females were outside, just on the outskirts of Malgrove. From a distance, Clair could already see students and people, possibly Remnants walking around the tiny city.

“Oh please, we’re both legal adults back at home and Paul really likes Clair for whatever reason. Besides, he would both delete us from time if anything happened to you!” Clair winced.

“O-oh…. where are we going then?”

“To only the best bakery in Malgrove!” April perked up, poking out from behind Mena’s back.

“THE COUTURE CUPCAKE COMPANYYYY!” The duo screamed out, startling a few passersby and made Karen cover her ears.

“Not s-suh-so loud!” Karen hissed.

Thus, the four of them set off into the town. Clair glanced at all the shop and restaurant names, recognizing a few students from her classes. One student entered what looked like a strange 80’s esque eatery, with slowed down music playing. The sound was muffled once the door was shut.

“Don’t go to that place, heard the guy behind it slips in drugs in their meat and the music that’s playing in there stimulates said drugs,” Mena said, eyeing the aesthetically dated restaurant.  

“Isn’t th-that what some people said about your bakery, Mena?”

“They’re obviously wrong since I put nothing extra in my food but love!” The group stopped at a technicolor pink house, a bit out of place for this hellscape. The inside of the bakery was large, with a counter in front of two doors. One of them was crudely marked ‘basement’ and the other was a simple sign that read ‘Kitchen.’

“I’ll grab some cupcakes for you guys, just stay there!” Mena disappeared to the ‘basement,’ and Clair could’ve sworn she saw blood streaking the walls as her friend descended down the steps.

There was another ‘tink!’ noise from outside and the redhead flinched. Rocking on her feet, she tried to tune out the noise but the tapping noise became louder. Something formed in her hand and she gripped at it to see that she had somehow formed a shank. Staring at the window, Clair ignored the concerned stares of her two other friends and ran outside.

“Hah!” She cried out, opening the door. Her angry face faded once she saw nothing in front of her, but oddly enough, everybody stood still. Purple flickered at the corners of her vision and the door to the bakery closed behind her.

“Shit! Hey! Let me back in!” Clair jiggled the doorknob, the device resisting. She banged on the door and got no response, some humming noise slowly growing louder. Static ‘exploded’ in front of her and she shrieked when the building that she just entered turned into static. Panicking, she ran from it as the environment morphed around her. She tripped and found herself at the woods.

The hum grew louder and something hissed as a figure slowly walked up to Clair. Panicking, she moved back until she bumped against something unknown. Something opened and her potential rescuer yanked her to safety.

The last thing she saw of her potential killer is that it had a strange cat mask.

“Heheheheh! What’re you doing out there, getting scared at nothing?”

Oh no.

Clair screamed and turned around to see that she was inside a cabin. Dried blood splatters littered the floor and HABIT was busy rubbing a knife with a rag. He was whistling something and a stack of photos was on a table behind him. He had ditched his sweater somewhere and was only wearing a black coat, his equally black shirt still visible.

“You could probably cause time and space to collapse on itself and you're scared over some Remnant wanting to say ‘hi’? That’s very rude, y’know,” he remarked, looking over at the photos.

“You asshole! Why can’t you leave me alone?!” Clair screamed. “Why do you have to bring _them_ into this?” Shaking in fury, she watched HABIT chuckle and he held up one photo, the same one that caused Clair to snap earlier that day.

It was her mother and father, both of them were in a strange, dark room. Her mother, mouth bound with black tape looked terrified of something off camera. Her father had his head covered in a black cloth, similar to the one she saw on the humans being sacrificed in her class. Gashes were on her mom’s body and her father looked beaten up. HABIT held up another photo, this time of some creature ready to strike behind her parents.

“So, I’m thinking- why wouldn’t you refuse my offer? You’ve been so damn stubborn that I had to resort to going out of my way and taking your parents on a little trip. They’re just as feisty as you, especially your mo-”

“SHUT UP! Shutupshutupshutupshut--”

“And I tried asking again!” HABIT snarled out, his voice distorting above Clair’s rambles for him to stop talking. “You know what I did? I made it worse!”

The next photo was that her mother looked like she was bleeding out and her father had his fibula broken, one of the ends jutting out of his skin. His upper face was censored, but Clair saw dried puke on his lower face.

“I’m sure your little siblings are so confused right now, who knows? Maybe they’re already gone, I hear veal is pretty rare nowadays--”

“Enough!” Clair was now a mess, tears streaking down her face despite the pissed-off look in her eyes. Her body was shaking in tremors and hiccups threatened to fall past her mouth. “Stop. Just stop this, please, I--”

“If you wanted this to stop, then you should’ve said ‘yes’ earlier, you fucking idiot. Now look what you did, you put your family in despair because you wouldn’t take my offer.

“So, hitman. What’ll it be? Your family’s life or someone else’s life?” HABIT waited, holding out his hand. Clair sniffled, glared at him, and slowly took his hand in hers, shaking it. HABIT dug his fingernails in her hand, but Clair felt too numb to feel it.

“Now that wasn’t so hard, was it? Let’s get started.” He stood up, pointing his knife at the door. “Get outside and take the…” He peered down towards her ‘weapon’ that she made. “...shank with you. We’re gonna go cultist hunting!”

“Wh- a-are you kidding me? They’re human beings!”

HABIT laughed. “So?”

“A… shank isn’t going to do much to them?” Clair carefully chose her words, her voice weakening. HABIT stared at her and she stared back, sweating.

“Heh, you’re learning. Take this instead,” HABIT tossed something at Clair and she caught it. Her shank disappeared in her left hand and she gripped some large machete, the handle wrapped with purple duct tape. HABIT walked out of his house into the woods, gesturing for Clair to follow him. With her options limited, she gingerly followed the demon.

There was silence, except for the two of them shuffling through the thick grass and some heavy breathing from a creature HABIT later explained was his ‘pet dog.’ Clair coughed, and when HABIT didn’t stop his movements, she spoke.

“If you’re an all-powerful force then how did you end up in some cult’s bad side? Can’t you just defeat them on your own?”

HABIT stopped moving, and Clair changed her posture, just in case if he would attack.

“I have a lot of people on my… my… uh, what’s that thing where- hitlist! Yeah, hitlist. I have a lot of people that think I’m just some little _pest_ and I can easily be taken down. They’re wrong, of course. The Gathering has been on my list for a while now, but they’re top priority!”

“The Gathering?”

“What- you think I know them inside and out? The point is that they need to be stopped right away and I need a little help. That’s where you come in, fellow deity of the month!” He paused, spotting something ahead.

“Get down, stay close to the trees,” he commanded. Clair did so, her fingers twitching around the weapon. Once he looked around, he moved up to something in a small clearing in the woods. The redhead followed him and gaped at what laid in front of them.

A large effigy, made out of some kind of dark wood, laid up above them. It held its arms out and a small pedestal laid below it. The effigy almost looked like a dragon and the plaque read:

_‘May the Gangalarr save us in this time of Need.’_

“Here! This is it- I saw it when I was watching the Poochums broadcast.” He held his arms out, turning to Clair.

“Now, we wait,” he said.

“Why w-”

A groan came from behind the two and HABIT looked towards the source. He grinned and grabbed Clair’s wrist, shoving her behind the statue. Peeking her head out, she could see people in gray uniforms, hoods obstructing their faces. Sixteen of them surrounded the front of the statue from a short distance and the seventh member walked through the crowd. Instead of a silver uniform, it wore a pale brown robe.

“Brothers and sisters, I welcome you to one of our private congregations,” a clear, calm, almost monotonous voice said. HABIT fidgeted behind her.

“Now I know not all of us could join, we would attract unwanted guests. But don’t fret- you could always spread our gospel to those that didn’t show up. Today we gather beneath the Gangalarr, the one who will spread his wings and carry us to safety once this dimension is purged by the King.” He raised his arms. “For I have seen him! Yes! The Gangalarr approached me in a wondrous, catastrophic dream with Violar beside me.” The crowd before him broke out in murmurs and Clair poked her head back behind the statue. She couldn’t read HABIT’s face.

“Do any of them sound familiar?” She whispered as the cult co-leader preached behind them.

“No- but it’s definitely the cult I’m looking for,” he whispered back.

“We’re gonna kill sixteen people?!”

“Shhh! No! Just wait until a few people leave or are distracted, you idiot.” Clair flinched and looked back towards the sermon. Now some of the members had thrown back their hoods, showing a part of their identity. A small group of cultists didn’t remove their hoods, including the leader. Clair was surprised to see that they looked… human. Nothing odd or supernatural was apparent on any of their exposed faces.

“Those that are the exposed- please, come and take the elixir, shed from the Gangalarr’s tears,” the leader pulled out a glass bottle filled with some unknown pale green liquid. A member stood up, sniffed it and winced.

“This smells like sewage waste-”

“Brother. Please. The scent is from the harsh labors the Gangalarr had to endure when he encountered the planet. Please drink this, or I’ll have to do it myself.”

“Ugh- that’s awful! I’m not dri-” the voice was cut off and Clair silently gasped when the cult leader grabbed the bottle end and shoved it towards his mouth. The reluctant cultist shut his mouth, but the leader pinched his nose closed. After a few seconds, he opened his mouth for air and the ‘drink’ was forced down his throat.

He gagged, falling down to the leader’s feet and began to cough. Once he gained his bearings, his face turned from disorderly to a happy, calm one.

“The light has been seen, thank you, Dracere.” The leader let out a low sigh and thus, the ‘communion’ began.

“Quick! Now’s your- our chance!” HABIT hissed in glee. “You go left and I’ll go right, remember, be quiet.” He ran towards the left of the statue, sticking to the shadows.

Clair moved right, gripping her machete. She walked towards an unknown cult member and dived the blade through their back. They made a loud choking noise, and Clair, with the blade still embedded into his spine, quickly turned them around and yanked out the weapon.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, covering her hand over the person’s mouth. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” She drove it straight towards their chest, and that was when she heard the cult quiet down.

HABIT was suddenly now in full view of the members, Clair just off to the other side. The leader sputtered out something, pointing at the demon.

“What are you doing here?! Get out!” HABIT didn’t say anything, and Clair looked past the leader to see that he somehow had murdered five people in the time she took to take one person’s life.

Then again, he was experienced.

“What did you do to a part of our congregation, foul beast?!”

“I killed ‘em, dipshit.” The leader flinched at the name and pulled out a sacrificial knife.

“You disgusting imp! My brothers and sisters-- get them! We can’t ha-” In the time it took for him to rally his ‘troops,’ he stared at Clair, hunched over a dead body.

“You. Who are y-” A pale fist came and socked him across the jaw and HABIT kicked him back to the statue.

“Go! Use your thing!” The demon yelled towards Clair.

“I can barely use it!” Clair screamed back.

“DO IT OR I’LL--”

“Okay okay!” Clair yelled through the chaos. While he attacked and stabbed some members, Clair turned and focused on the cult leader and a few ‘assistants’ trying to help him up.

Focusing, she closed her eyes to see what she could remember from her class just hours before HABIT ‘kidnapped’ her. Raising her hands, she opened up her eyes to see that the wooden statue had morphed, it’s ‘wings’ encasing the three people. A bit of the wood wrapped around the leader’s neck, choking him.

“Come on, you coward! Do it!” Clair’s hands twitched and she could almost _feel_ the living matter wrap around the neck.

BwwaaAAAAAAAA--

Some noise caused HABIT to stop what he was doing. He dropped his latest victim and quickly looked around for the noise source. Next to him, something slammed into a tree and it warped into a far curve. The ground distorted under him and he quickly faced Clair.

“What are you doing?! That’s not how you- fix this!”

“I-I can’t!” Clair was just as confused as he is, she only focused on the sociopathic leader, why was-

“Then stop choking him! You’re tearing this place ap- shit!” He fell back and Clair tried waving her hands around to stop what had happened.

And it did. Somewhat.

The dragon statue let go of the three cult members and the leader’s hood was thrown back, he coughed and wheezed and Clair could see he had warm brown hair. The strange humming noise was gone and HABIT looked fine, albeit a little shaken up. The cult leader quickly put his hood back on and ran off into the woods, taking the people that were left alive with him. The two people watched them go, and Clair saw HABIT’s smile break into a sharp-toothed grin. He turned towards Clair, giggling madly.

“We did it, buddy! Congrats on killing something for the first time, how ya feeling?”

“I feel like puking,” Clair admitted.

“You’ll get used to it,” HABIT said, rummaging through the corpses. He pulled out a few items and set them next to the body pile.

Clair looked over and saw that every single cultist had a flower, a petunia, a small book filled with rambling writings titled ‘Dream Journal’ and some money. HABIT picked up one of the journals, skimmed through it and grimaced.

“Ugh, get a load of this preachy shit,” HABIT growled, shoving one of the leather-bound books to Clair. She opened it and turned through the pages.

 

‘i saw the gangalarr! truly [?????] is a miracle worker’

 

‘we never see violar, dracere says shes a fundemental part in our congregation but she never shows up. i wonder why?’

 

‘had to drop our human values, dracere says it isnt okay. said something about the gangalarr not caring for human needs’

 

None of these entries seemed right. Sure, there was no sign of unhappiness in this one cult member, but there was something off about this sect.

Until one last entry was seen prior to the massacre today.

‘There was a meeting today at the Corona Barrow with Dracere and Violar. Violar wasn’t mad at us but Dracere was so mad. He kept on saying how ‘praxis’ was here and we had to take ‘extra’ measures against the demon. Said something about 50 years, dunno what that means.

However, today is my first communion! Today I get to be blessed by Dracere! I can’t wait!’

“Corona Barrow?”

“Oh- that place?” HABIT said. “That’s…. that’s close to the entrance of lower Zh’aambras-” HABIT paused, thinking over something. For a few moments, he waved away Clair.

“Alright- I think that’s enough for today-- you can go home and sleep or whatever humans do.”

A chime rang from far away and Clair pulled out her phone: it was 2:30.

“Shit! You dick- you made me miss class!”

“Oh boo-hoo, it was either this or you get murdered by that Remnant who wanted to be… nice to you.” She screamed in frustration, running off back to the campus as HABIT watched her leave.

************

Clair tried her best to merge with the crowd, but glancing at the guards made her feel tinier. Almost as if they knew where she was.

“Th-there you are!” Through the crowds, Karen pushed people away to find her older friend. “Yuh-you disappeared… disappeared when Mena was… was getting her cupcakes! Where did you go?”

 _Oh, I’m sorry,_ Clair wanted to say. _But some manipulative sociopathic demon blackmailed me into doing his dirty work and if I don’t follow him he’ll-_

“I took a nap,” was what came out of her mouth instead.

“O-oh…” Clair could feel the guard’s eyes on them both and she walked with the crowd. Karen followed behind her.

“Has anybody been, ah, looking for me?” It was a reach, but Karen’s adoptive father was a part of the staff, so maybe there would be something?

“There… was a loud noise and security went… haywire. They told us to stay put in our rooms while they--”

“Karen!” Paul suddenly showed up, pulling his ‘daughter’ into his arms. “I was so worried about you, the lockdown…” The staff member looked up at Clair and stepped back away from her before Paul moved down to talk to his daughter, ignoring Clair.

Grunting in frustration, she headed back to her dorm. Opening it, she noticed that the receptionist looked scared of her.

“Is there anybody else with you?” she asked timidly, her arms wrapping around her sides.

Clair looked behind her, HABIT wasn’t stalking her. “No?”

“A-are you sure?!” The redhead stared at the receptionist before pulling out a card, scanning the little gates that would let her in. Once they flattened against their metallic posts, the girl moved towards her room, ignoring the frightened stare of the adult.

Once she unlocked her door and walked into the dorm, Clair let out a sigh of relief when her ‘friend’ wasn’t here to surprise her. She looked around and saw paper bags with grease staining the bottom of it. Assuming the worst, the girl slowly opened it up and winced. After a few moments and nothing popped out of her or scared her, she looked inside the bag to see a burger and small fries.

Hesitantly taking out the highly sodium-filled meal, she opened up the burger to see if HABIT sneaked anything dangerous like razors or rat poison. Seeing nothing, she began to eat her ‘dinner.’

The demon got her some food. That must’ve been the only nice thing he did thus far.

She was just starting on the French fries when the door slammed open and Clair choked on the fried potato. She kept on choking on her food until the footsteps came closer and someone slammed a fist into her back so hard that she face-planted on the table.

Heaving, Clair covered her nose and put the choked-up fry on a napkin. She turned around and glared at HABIT standing over her.

“Haaaaah-- thanks,” she said, sarcasm dripping from her tongue. HABIT shrugged.

“Can’t have you dying on me yet! Now… what was I going to say to you?” Clair looked at him and fumbled for the remote, and that’s when HABIT slammed his hands down on the table.

“Hitman! Turn on the TV! I just remembered something!”


	4. NEFAS

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is graphic.  
> Proceed with caution.

“What?”

“Turn on the TV!” HABIT repeated while fumbling with the device, yanking it from Clair’s hands. He dragged her towards a couch in her ‘living room’ and turned on the TV. He flipped through the channels until ‘POOCHUMS’ appeared on the screen.

“What the hell are you doi-”

“Shut up!” HABIT sat down next to the redhead and the two watched the program begin.

While Pansy looked… clean, Porter had an unfortunate disheveled appearance. His hair (or what little hair he had) was messy and cuts covered his face, there was even a strange scar on his neck.

“Welcome to POOCHUMS! Your latest broadcast for anything that’s happening in your modern worl- oh gods! Porter, what happened to you?”

The male stared at the camera for a few moments and out of the corner of his eye HABIT could see Clair shiver. Pansy awkwardly coughed and a snapping noise was heard until Porter jerked his head over to face his colleague. The demon leaned over to Clair.

“Does this come with a pause button?”

“I think so? Why?”

HABIT grunted, ignoring her and waited for the male host’s response.

“I got attacked…. by a bear,” he finally said.

“Oh no! Was it the Milleniursi?”

“Heh, that old murderer? Please, he wouldn’t go for someone as myself,” Porter’s eyepatch sagged slightly on his face and HABIT could’ve sworn he saw black smoke coming from it. The host adjusted his eyepatch.

“Oh, well, you don’t know that, Porter. He... might’ve been cured by the labs-”

“They don’t do _shit,_ Pansy--”

“We’re getting off-topic!” She screeched, facing the camera. “Speaking of which, we now have a statement from Amaranth Laboratories from… uh--”

Another image flashed by on the TV screen behind the two. It quickly flickered to a logo. HABIT ‘paused’ the TV and backed up frame by frame until he found a hidden image. A decapitated rabbit with blood-covered scissors nearby in a forest.

HABIT stared at the image for a few moments, his face blank. His hands unconsciously went to his neck and Clair got out of the room, heaving. There was no way the two would know what happened to him. It was fifty years ago. It was old news. He was fine. His head was stable and the thing was locked away and

There was a click and the TV resumed the broadcast, catching up to the announcement from the labs.

“...so please remember to avoid anybody giving you instances of _Rugalio_ as it may potentially ruin your mental state, thank you.” Blinking, HABIT saw the labs logo, two amaranths curved into a wreath with the company name beside it with some strange words underneath it.

“Hey! Wake up!” Clair attempted to tap HABIT’s shoulder, but he quickly grabbed her wrist and twisted over to the female.

“Don’t. Touch me,” he growled, the redhead yanking her arm away from his grip. Clair hissed in pain and rubbed at her wrist.

“Why thank you, Director Breiner!” Pansy chirped. “The latest news here comes from our alma mater, FAMBOS! Reports have been saying that they found a group of bodies covered in robes in front of what looks to be a statue.” HABIT watched Porter’s face, but he remained blank, emotionless. Even with his thousand-yard-stare that made him look dead inside, he didn’t show any reaction to the news that was being shown to him.

“It’s probably another cult for Z-” Porter was cut off by his sudden coughing. Pansy tried to make a gesture for him to stop.

“Zuh-” Porter wheezed again, folding over himself.

“Oh come on, you big baby! It’s not that hard to say their name!” HABIT yelled.

“Zah-- aw screw it. It’s probably yet another cult for the Siren of Armageddon,” Porter paused, waiting for anything to happen while Pansy fidgeted in her spot. After a few moments, Porter shrugged.

“They, what, have maybe 3 million supporters backing them? I’m not surprised, honestly.”

Pansy faced the camera, smiling. “Remember, anyone who’s watching. Cults can be very convincing and you won’t know about the danger you’re in until it’s too late!”

“Especially if it applies to _them_ ,” Porter mumbled. Another frame flashed by but was too quick for HABIT to notice. The two hosts got up and did a strange salute.

“Po-chen and Pansea, signing off!” The two said before static exploded in the speakers and a symbol ‘burned’ into the screen. A strange type of creature’s head with its tongue exposed, a ‘G’ carved into its tongue.

“...Huh,” HABIT said, switching the channel to a more ‘reliable’ news station.

“That’s it?! It’s like they know about us!”

“That’s a good thing, hitman, we have a _lead!_ ” HABIT insisted, rummaging in his pockets, he pulled out the same ‘prayer journal’ and threw it at Clair. “We just go to the barrow thing, stake it out for a couple of days and boom! We’ll slaughter them all!” Ohh, HABIT could see it now. He couldn’t wait to see the look on their terrified faces once he sliced into their-

One look at Clair’s face just pissed him off. Why did she look so hesitant? This was supposed to be a good thing, and she was supposed to be 100 percent compliant. Even if he had to pull a few strings to get her to cooperate.

“Hey- lighten up, would ya? We’re cleansing this world together!” He smiled. “Nobody likes cults.”

“No...nobody likes cults… you’re right.”

“Then we’re cool, why don’t you get some shut-eye, I’m gonna talk to a few… friends about this.”

“You have friends?” As soon as that came out of Clair’s mouth, she covered it and flinched away from the demon when he turned towards her. His frown quickly turned into a smirk once he shrugged.

“You’d be surprised,” he said before he left the dorm. Exiting through one of the backdoors, he pulled out a second ‘prayer journal,’ turning towards a page that was scribbled with directions.

**********

Days passed since the cryptic announcement. The demon hadn’t actually left for his destination just yet.

HABIT was busy doing what he did best on a rainy day. With his latest ‘victim,’ in the basement, he had already started on the chains when something knocked at his door. While he did ignore it several times, the knocking went on and on until HABIT’s fingers twitched. He slammed the poor human down to the stone ground and walked up the stairs, pulling off his blood-covered jacket.

“I’m coming, you d-” HABIT paused, looking out the window to see… Pansy? She wore a large, sleeveless shawl with a hood that covered her face, but judging from the sparkling pink accessories on her arm, it was her. The hostess even kept looking behind her frantically.

HABIT began to panic. Sure, she wasn’t as obvious as Porter was, but there was no doubt that she could’ve been involved in the cult. HABIT could either let her in, let her see his dirty work, and then be killed/ratted out or he could just let her knock for eternity.

BANG BANG.

The blond threw his bloody clothing into the basement, locked it, locked his weapons room, and quickly rearranged some of his furniture to hide the blood stains. Stuffing a knife under one of his couch cushions, HABIT opened up the door and let ‘Everett’ take control.

“Good m-morning, ma’am,” Everett said as HABIT felt the urge to puke far within the reaches of his host’s mind. “Are you alright?”

“Oh, yes yes! It’s just…. may I come in?”

HABIT made Everett move himself to block the doorway. “Are you lost? You know, you could always-”

“It’s not like that! Let me in!” Pansy shoved her way past Everett, causing him to fall. She looked around the cabin suspiciously and sat down at a couch chair after closing the door. Everett sat down on the couch, just above where the knife was.

“I’m so glad I can finally speak to someone about this,” Pansy whispered. “Have you heard of the Gathering?”

Ohhh this was going to be tedious, HABIT could just feel it. “The Gathering? Miss…”

“Lupin, just call me Pansy, alright? Anyway, supposedly this cult known as The Gathering of The Gangalarr, G2, is making rounds in Malgrove. Heard they’re looking for some dead demon too.”

Said demon watched her expressions carefully, waiting to see if she would do something to ambush HABIT. “Your point being?”

“Oh, someone like me can’t save themselves with this- cults are very, very manipulative. Besides, I need something to defend a helpless little-”

“Yes, I saw your broadcast talking about it.”

“Which one?”

HABIT scooted back a bit as Pansy leaned in, smiling oddly. HABIT was no idiot, but it couldn’t be just one big old coincidence that Pansy found his house and was trying to manipulate him.

“The… the one where you talked to Director Breiner- the Swede?”

“Ohhh, him! Yeah! He was such a hardass whenever I tried to get an interview with him, weird, right?” HABIT’s hand twitched.

“Now what was I saying, oh! You need to stop getting involved with this cult.”

This was when HABIT began to sweat. “Pardon?”

“We’ve been seeing reports of how some people are trying to stop this, now I think that’s a bad idea for a multitude of reasons. My main gripe, however, is the fact that they’ll be killed and… sacrificed. And judging by the photos, it’s you and some other human.”

HABIT’s eyes flickered to purple. Photos? Had someone been spying on them? “You got the wrong person, lady.”

“Do I?!” She yelped, leaping towards HABIT. He instantly gained control of his host and ripped out the knife from the couch. Pansy fell onto the seat and HABIT slashed at her shoulder, the knife just digging into the muscle.

A clicking noise suddenly got his attention.

Pansy had pulled out a strange, silver weapon that was long and had a barrel near the grip. A gun. HABIT never liked guns, they were too loud and got the job done a bit too quickly.

“Drop the knife,” Pansy commanded, pointing the muzzle right at his forehead. “Or you’ll be forced to retreat again, remember?”

HABIT only gripped his knife tighter at her tone.

Then he ran out of his cabin like a madman.

Pansy didn’t hesitate, there was a slight spinning noise before a loud ‘BANG!’ resonated through the forest. Something whizzed past HABIT’s head and he cursed, nearly falling onto his feet. He ran deeper into the woods as Pansy screamed in frustration.

“Get back here!” She yelled before another shot ran out through the woods. HABIT tried running faster to get the possible cultist lady off of his trail. When silence filled the woods, he let out a sigh of relief-

Bang!

Searing pain ripped through HABIT’s arm and it felt like his muscles were vaporizing. Looking down at his arm, he could see the clean bullet hole on one side of his arm but a bloody blossom of flesh and blood on the other. HABIT let out another curse, kneeling onto the ground. Whenever he tried to cover up the wound with either his hand or something else, the direct contact of it with exposed flesh made the pain go up to his arm.

Another gunshot, this time sounding closer, made him fall to the ground. The demon struggled to get up, but something kicked him down. Pansy had finally caught up with him.

“Ohoho! I can’t wait until Porter sees this latest sc-” There was a ‘yah!’ noise from behind HABIT and he saw a rock flying towards her eye. She let out a cry of pain and more rocks, some tiny, but others about the size of a human eye flew towards the celebrity.

“Ow! Ow ow ow- who’s doing th-” There was another grunt and a rock the size of a small child’s head lobbed itself at Pansy. She let out an ‘oofff’ noise and that was when HABIT saw Clair walk up next to him, tiny stones floating slightly around her.

“You,” Pansy calmly said. “I’m not done with the both of you yet!” She pulled out three small balls, holding them between her fingers. She quickly turned her hand into a fist and slammed them down to the ground below the two humans. Something exploded and HABIT used his non-fucked up arm to protect himself from anything that would leap up at him. The smoke from the ‘grenades’ faded away (along with the ringing noise)

HABIT looked up towards the redhead, who was glaring down at him. She sighed, held out a hand, and waited for HABIT to take it. Once he did, Clair pulled him up and the two moved back towards HABIT’s house.

“Aw, thanks! Not that I--”

“If I just stood there you would’ve shoved me into the gun,” Clair hisses, brows furrowed. “Whatever, I’m sure you can heal that wound.”

HABIT remained silent despite the negative energy making him feel chipper. Clair stopped at the cabin, let him in and slammed the door in his face, running away towards the Remtaine dorm. The demon just stared at her before returning to and unlocking his ‘torture chamber.’

*********

Around the middle of the night, HABIT got up from his bed. He set off towards the woods (not before seemingly grabbing a knife from thin air- how does he do that?) to find the barrow once his wounds were healed. Even though there was a red mark that hurt every time he pressed into it too roughly. As the trees turned from lush (as lush as pine trees can get) to decay. Brown bark into gray, the faintest of buzzing noises, and the smell of burnt flesh.

“Hiya!”

HABIT nearly _jumped_ and swung around his knife at the air before he noticed a black cloak. Staring down at him was a small child with brown skin and small, beady black eyes. He had shaggy black hair and  HABIT could’ve sworn he saw it fade out to red.

“I haven’t seen you in _ages,_ how are you?” The demon backed away from the child, noticing strange slight indents near his mouth and eyes.

“I think you got the wrong person, kid-”

“I CAN TAKE YOU TO CORONA BARROW!” The kid suddenly shrieked, making HABIT cover his ears. “Isn’t that what you’re looking for? I’ll show you where it is!!!”

Sure, HABIT was a bit lost, but he didn't need any sort of help from this small pint. He could navigate the decaying wasteland on his own, even if it would take hours, days, months…. years…..

“Nice enthusiasm, kid, but I think you need to run off back to the school so you can--”

“But wouldn’t it be better if, y’know, you had someone that was familiar with Lower Zh’aambras that would take you to the burial ground. Obviously!” The kid was insistent, reaching out to HABIT’s arm. HABIT could see that the child’s fingertips were covered in either ash or soot.

“Ugh, fine,” the demon groaned. “Lead the way, kid.” HABIT saw the indents twitch just a bit and the child turned around, speed walking to the northwest.

“My name’s Zahir! Momma said it means ‘sparkling,’ I think that’s really cool since my eyes sparkle and-” HABIT tuned Zahir out, and the scent of rotting flesh made it harder for him to try and ignore the kid.

“Oooh, here it is! Sorry in advance, HABIT!”

The blond man was just about to ask what he meant before Zahir shoved him down a small ravine. Even though the child looked like he couldn’t even lift a crate of chickens, his output strength caused HABIT to tumble on his feet. As he fell, the rocks jutted out slammed into his body and he coughed up blood, one of the outcroppings jabbing into his stomach. He rolled over on his side and groaned in agony, more blood ‘exploding’ past his lips.

“Good luck! Maybe we’ll see each other again someday, mister!” Zahir cried out from above him. There were some noises from the kid abandoning him and HABIT slowly stood up.

The kid had pushed him down a ravine, and HABIT could see large holes lining the bottom ‘layer’ of the rock. Blood stained some rocks, but that was probably from HABIT’s own doing.

He moved through the gorge, watching his step and wiping the blood from his mouth onto his sleeve. His steps echoed into the crevasse and snarls resonated from the holes, probably some Remnants turned feral. What a shame.

The ravine expanded, forming a strange ‘circle’ that rose from the ground. Surrounding the mound were stone columns and structures with strange murals carved into it. Running to it, HABIT climbed upwards to see a large plaque, reading:

 

FOR WHICH THE PROPHECY FORETOLD BY THE KNOWN GANGA DUO SAID IN THEIR DECREE:

MAY THE GANGALARR CARRY US TO SAFETY HERE ONCE THE SIREN REAWAKENS.

YR. 2079

 

That was this year.

Shit.

There was a thump behind him and HABIT moved on his feet to see… Clair? She was climbing up the mound, her fingers trying to dig into the rock to help herself up. Regardless of the rage that bubbled inside of him, he breathed in and faced Clair with a neutral face.

“Aw, you couldn’t stay away from me for more than a minute?” Clair swiped at his face, spooked. He took this opportunity to grab her wrist and pull her up with him.

“No! Some kid just appeared in my room and took me here-” Clair opened her mouth to yawn, she was only wearing a short-sleeved shirt with a tank top underneath it and shorts that clung to her legs. Rubbing her eyes, she moved away from HABIT, shaking. “-and I’m shooo tired… can we go back?”

“We’re at the Barrow now, remember? Maybe we’ll have a chance to get rid of this cult problem once and for all!”

“We? But I didn’t follow you, remember? Some weird kid went up in my face when I was sleeping and told me to put my clothshes… on. I think he screamed at me and then I appeared here. I feel like dying--”

“What is with you humans?! Why can’t any of you just go along with my plan?!” HABIT snapped, screaming as Clair winced at his tone.

“It’s threeee A.M!”

Scrape Scrape. Scraping noises silenced the two and HABIT flung the girl over his shoulder. She shrieked and flailed in his grasp as he threw her into one of the ‘screeching’ holes. He dived right in and saw the redhead rub her head in pain.

Though the view was a bit limited, the hitman duo could see Brown Hooded leader and someone in a white hooded robe. They had both faced the plague and Brown Hood looked around before removing his hood.

Clair let out a tiny gasp, but HABIT wasn’t surprised. It was Porter, but his eyepatch was gone. Instead of an eye or none at all, it was something that was completely red with a black pupil. It was ‘pouring’ out this black mist and the male didn’t look the least bit bothered by it.

“Eugh! You should’ve brought that thing with you, I don’t need to see that,” a female voice shrieked.

“You’ve seen this since we got banished! I'm _fine_ if anything, my eye feels… misty.” He rubbed at it and black smoke flowed through his fingers.

A chorus of footsteps appeared in front of them and Porter turned towards them, holding his hands out at his sides. HABIT peeked out and saw more people than there were at the forest, probably nearly 55 cult members. Unlike the previous group, they all wore patches on their outfit and all wore the same thing: light blue shirts and pants, even the women. They all had their hair cut short and most of them looked… happy?

“Welcome, welcome! As the time has come, the Gangalarr will meet us here on this burial mound where he slept!” Cheers roared through the ravine and the ground shook above the two hitmen. A few rocks hit Clair’s head and she hissed in pain.

“As told in Violar’s prophecy-” he gestured to White Hood, who had removed her cover and was a blonde woman with a slightly disgruntled look on her face. It was Pansy, now with several bruises on her face from when Clair threw rocks at her.“-the Siren will rise again- but fear not! Once the time comes, the Gangalarr will shield our ears from Their Song and he will carry us to safety once the world ends!

“Now my brothers and sisters, please! Join us now in the Aether where the Gangalarr will meet us! You, my child, please demonstrate for us.” Porter pointed at one of the members, a man with cropped brown hair. He walked up onto the mound, crying happily as he took a small and plastic cup from Pansy’s hands.

“I can’t believe it, I’m going home!” Was the last thing he said before he swallowed what looked like applesauce laced with tiny white particles. He threw the cup somewhere, it clattering at the two hitmen’s feet and the cult member waited for his departure.

Suddenly, his body began to convulse. Something foamed at his mouth and he fell to the ground, grasping at his throat. Despite the sickening death rattles, his face was in a happy grin.

This continued for five minutes, and then he fell to the ground, dead. Silence ran through the ravine but cheers and cries of _joy_ roared through the open space. Clair held her hands over her mouth and her eyes were wide open, a choked cry coming from her. HABIT sniffed at the cup, but nothing too noticeable hit his nose, almost like it was odorless.

“Th-they made him kill himself!” Clair whispers, her voice on the verge of breaking. “Just like… just like back when-” But her words were drowned out as more excited cult members showed their glee over their colleague’s ‘graduation ceremony.’

“How good are your powers?”

Clair wiped at her face. “Huh?”

“Y’know, like can you actually do something without fucking up for once?!”

“Oh! Uh… I can make very small objects and they won’t disappear, why?”

HABIT didn’t answer the sleepy girl and instead dragged her out of their hiding spot. They moved behind the crowds and Clair glanced towards more people reaching up for their deadly drink.

“At least people don’t actually believe this,” she whispered, just as the ground began to rumble. The mound below the two cult leader’s shook erratically, and a roar ran through the ravine. Light exploded from behind Porter and Pansy and reached into the sky. More roars were heard from the light source.

“What the shit?!” HABIT said.

“He awakens! My children, quickly now! That means the Siren is here!” Pansy yelped, making a ‘come here’ gesture.

“I was not expecting this,” HABIT mumbled to himself before grabbing Clair’s wrist and pushing himself past all the members close as he could to Porter and Pansy.

“HEY ASSHOLES, WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING?!” He yelled. The cult members stopped and stared at the two, parting from them like the Red Sea. Porter, facing the light column, dramatically turned over to the demon and his ‘hitman.’

“Ah, finally! I was waiting for you to wake up, HABIT.” The mist from his formerly hidden eye increased in density, and the demon could smell smoke.

“And you brought your little friend along- of course,” Clair was struggling to stay awake, even though HABIT dug his nails into her wrist to keep her from falling asleep.

HABIT pulled out his knife. “Why can’t you fuck off?! I’ll make sure you can meet with the Siren personally.”

Porter stood there, and the crowd, including HABIT and Clair, watched him slowly cover his smoking eye. He began to breathe heavily and HABIT walked up to him, knife threatening to slit his throat open.

“This’ll be easier than I thought it would be,” he beamed, and he thrust the machete towards his new victim-

But it didn’t happen. Porter ended up moving away from HABIT, and he had an angry look on his face.

“The last time I met with that _thing,_ they gave me this!” Claws extended from Porter’s fingers and his teeth turned sharp as he pointed at his other eye. “When the both of us were fucking banished, they thought it would be a great idea to take a ‘consolation prize!’

“I have spent _years_ recovering from this and my plan is going to go in shambles because you couldn’t stay dead?!”

“I dunno, what do you think?” HABIT asked, waiting for him to explode.

And he did.

Porter leaped towards HABIT and he managed to trip the other demon. The blond panicked and yelled out to Clair, who was being mobbed by the cult members. “Go deal with the brainwashed freaks!”

“I-I’m tryin- ah!” Clair yelped out before fighting back against the humans, a muffled ‘bang’ noise reaching HABIT’s ears once she managed to pull something out of nowhere. HABIT winced at the noise and focused his attention on the now demonic Porter.

“I don’t even know _why_ the Siren gave you another chance! You just couldn’t keep your nose out of our business!” Porter was ruthless, slashing at HABIT and barely reacting when he was stabbed or sliced at.

“The Siren- I don’t know what you’re talking about! I only brought myself back, I didn’t need that freak’s help!” HABIT aimed for one of Porter’s legs, bare, and sliced at one of his ankles, jumping at him. The cult leader let out a cry and fell to the mound, HABIT tumbling with him. More banging noises were heard behind him along with Clair groaning in pain or her screams.

Something yanked HABIT away and he twisted around to see Pansy attempting to get the demon off of Porter. Noticing the tray of unconsumed  ‘suicide drinks,’ he threw it into her face, the mixture getting in her eyes.

She screamed, tumbling around on the hill, trying to rub at her eyes. Porter watched her fall, and now with a wrathful look on his face, he attempted to launch himself at HABIT, goring him across his face. Due to his ruined Achilles tendon, he collapsed onto the ground again, screaming in pain.

With blood now dripping down his face, HABIT wiped it away. The scars on his face slowly disappeared and Porter stared at him, confused. One glance down at the ‘congregation’ below showed that Clair was covered in blood and there were only three more people still alive. One of them had a smashed-in nose.

“Oh, hey! You’re almost done, good job!” HABIT chirped, giving Clair a thumbs up. Something scrapped over to the edge and out of the corner of his eye, he could see Porter’s eyes widen.

“No! What did you two do to my-” HABIT aimed the tip of his foot directly into Porter’s supernatural eye and the other demon let out a painful screech. HABIT squatted down to his eye level and held out two of his fingers.

“Oops,” he said.

And in one quick motion, HABIT had popped out Porter’s other eye. Thick, black goop clung to HABIT’s fingers, and he proceeded to squish the demonic… thing.

With Porter finally subdued, and Pansy probably incapacitated, HABIT looked down at his partner-in-crime to see her standing over a trembling, old female.

When HABIT slid down the mound, the conversation became clearer, Clair didn’t move, but upon closer inspection, she was shaking.

“...ease! I have children at home, th-they have grandchildren- I’m only doing this so I can support them! You.. you remind me so much of my granddaughter-” HABIT, still gripping onto his knife, went over and wrapped an arm around Clair’s shoulders. She immediately looked at him, terrified.

“Aw, having a hard time here? Don’t worry, I’ll help.” And HABIT leaned down to the old woman, slowly slitting her throat. Gurgles erupted from her as an eerie death rattle, and Clair could only stare at her the elder choked to death on her own blood.

Ignoring Clair’s shocked face, HABIT dragged her over to the mound, let go of her, and picked up Pansy, dropping her next to Porter.

“That was just practice! You see, you can live out the full experience of being my hitman if you can just off one of them. Now, it doesn’t matter who, but I prefer you take out that whore first, she’s quite the talker.” He suggested, holding the weapon out to Clair.

A few moments passed as HABIT waited ‘patiently’ for Clair to choose who got to die first. What he didn’t tell her was that he would take the other one for ‘snuff reasons,’ but she didn’t need to know that. Not now.

“I know, it’s tough, right? But you can only choose ooonneeee!” After no response, HABIT waved a hand in front of her face. She stepped off to the side, blinking at the demon and making a noise of surprise when he ripped the knife out of her hand.

“Too slow, the hellspawn it is!” Clair didn’t even have a chance to stop HABIT when he launched himself at Porter. Not wasting another second, he began to stab Porter to death. He tried to fight back, but in his already weakened state, all he could do was scream.

HABIT, feeling like he already did enough damage, got up from the demon’s body and he watched him slowly die.

“You were- gghhk! lucky, Sirenspawn!” Porter croaked out. “But if you’re going to go further and go after the actual Siren, heed my words.

“They’re a being that you can’t easily kill, like me. I highly doubt you and the Oracle over there can just take it down immediately.”

“Who said I was going after them?”

“Oh- _wheeze--_ she told me,” Porter weakly raised his finger up and pointed to something further behind the two murderers before he passed on. HABIT turned to see the same Remnant that Clair was nearly killed by a week ago. There was something _awfully familiar_ in her hands though.

Stepping closer, the thing had ruined clothing, a large shawl over their black shirt with torn black leggings that exposed her strange, animal-like feet and legs. He couldn’t see her face, as it was covered by a strange, child-like cat mask. Her hair was a brownish-red and messy, filled with mud and twigs. She was tall, maybe about seven feet high and a second pair of forearms extended from her elbow.

“That wasn’t part of the deal!” A muffled, but shrill and feminine voice came out from the mask. “You idiot!” Despite her addressing a now dead body, she moved closer. The weapon shined in the moonlight and HABIT stepped back when he saw it.

The Spear of Nagakos. Something that should’ve been locked away for a jubilee.

He looked over at Clair, who didn’t move. The Remnant faced the shocked female and stared back, holding the weapon out in front of her for defense.

“Oh- oh no oh no- this is all wrong! Boss won’t be happy when--” HABIT quickly put Pansy into a sleeper hold and made her unconscious, hoisting the young adult over his shoulder.

“Move aside, will you? We’re busy,” HABIT asked. The Remnant flashed her weapon out again. She froze, holding her head in her free hand. After standing still for a few moments, HABIT took the opportunity to gesture Clair over to walk around the tall female. Just as they were back to the claustrophobic rock walls, something made a swishing noise.

The Spear dug itself into the rock, barely missing HABIT and Pansy. Clair _screamed_ as the other parts of the Spear untwisted, pushing it from where it last was. It moved into the Remnant’s hands and twisted back to normal.

“No,” she said, her voice reverbing slightly. “You can’t, it’s not what I saw.” In a panic, HABIT ran towards the front, shoving Clair. With the redhead behind him, the two ran in the ravine trying to find the exit.

“You ssa’linui!” The humanoid screeched. HABIT struggled to run back to where he was dropped off from. It didn’t help that he was carrying an unconscious 100+ pound female on his shoulder either, but he could make do. He did rip off a dog’s head one time.

“Did that kid show you any exit?”

“He just dropped me off here!” Was his reply back and HABIT groaned. In the distance, they were getting close to a dead end with a human shape when the ravine walls closed in on each other.

“HEY! GET US OUT OF HERE!” Clair yelled out. HABIT stopped himself and looked behind him, not seeing Cat Mask.

Scuttling was heard from the sides and he saw that the creature was crawling on all fours on the sides of the rock with the staff attached to her back. HABIT picked up his pace just as he saw Clair stop and talk with the kid. Her frantic yells turned from incoherent to eligible and all the hooded figure could do was stare at the thing moving on the rocks like an arachnid.

“What are you talking about? There’s no problem here,” the child said, oblivious.

“Get me back home!” Clair screamed.

“Which one?”

There was a sudden thump behind the two and Zahir looked away from Clair to face the aforementioned ‘Oracle.’ She raised her arms up with the Spear in both hands, and thrusted downwards to HABIT’s spine.

But suddenly stopped.

HABIT moved out of the way and saw that she couldn’t move. Her fingers twitched but it was almost like something was blocking her. Zahir, despite him being three feet smaller than Oracle. All the dark-skinned child was stare at the Remnant and smile.

Oracle, after a few moments, returned back to her standing position. She muttered something along the lines of ‘fucking bastard’ under her breath and put the spear at her side. She quickly climbed up the walls of the ravine and stared down at the two for a bit before running off out of sight.

The air turned soupy around the two murderers and HABIT felt something whoosh past him. He blinked and found himself back in the forest, not the decaying one once he was out of the academy’s territory. Rain sprinkled on the three of them (four if you counted the unconscious Pansy) as Zahir grinned, holding his arms up.

“Whew! That was close,” HABIT noticed the slight reverb in the kid’s voice, a bit more noticable than Oracle’s own. The strangest thing was that there were a few other voices in the reverb that didn’t fit the child. “We could’ve been goners!”

“Who was that?” Clair asked, dried blood on her body.

“Oh, someone quite _familiar!”_ Oh.

Oh **_no._ **

“Hey uh, we have to go, we gotta work on this… other girl-” HABIT slightly adjusted Pansy’s body. “We gotta leave in a hurry before she wakes up--”

“Okay! Bye, my **_BEST_ ** friends!” Zahir moved further into the woods and HABIT and Clair watched him leave.

The two eventually found the cabin after some moments and just as they got in a downpour ran through the area. HABIT opened the door and threw Pansy’s body on the couch. His incorrect aim made her head droop down to the floor and her feet to by in the air. HABIT looked at her body for a bit, and then to Clair.

“Another one off the list,” he whispered, patting Clair’s back a bit too hard. “Look at you, you’re a natural, wiping out all those cultists. How’d you do it?”

“I… made a pistol and closed my eyes,” Clair said as HABIT made a face of disgust.

“Odd weapon choice, but whatever, you’ll fight right in!” HABIT congratulated her, moving over to Pansy and lifting her up over his shoulder. “Now if you don’t mind me, I got something _special_ planned for Cult Leader No.2! You wanna watch it, hitman?!”

“No thanks.”

“Awww! Okay, bye!” He opened the door, kicking Clair in the center of her body, causing her to stumble and land on the wet green grass. She screamed, and HABIT shut the door on her. Through the window, he could see her get up, glare directly at him, and ‘made’ a small umbrella that barely covered her. Clair moved back to the school grounds, trying to avoid the onslaught of the storm.

HABIT opened the basement door, descending down the stairs. He stopped a few steps away from the bottom and tossed the female’s body carelessly down onto the cold stone flooring.

That’s when she finally woke up. Gripping her head, Pansy looked around her to see nothing but darkness, the stairs, and her captor. HABIT turned on the light and Pansy screamed at all the gore displayed in front of her.

Some of the floor was covered in dried blood and an array of weapons laid on a giant pegboard. A slowly decaying body laid in a fetal position in one corner and there was a heavy breathing noise in one corner. With a small bowl of water labelled ‘RAKE’ in sloppy handwriting, Pansy’s flight-or-fight senses kicked in. She immediately headed for the stairs.

HABIT kicked her in the face, grinning at the sickening _crunch_ from his foot. She landed down on the floor, gripping at her broken nose. She stared at HABIT in horror as he squatted down to her eye level.

“If only Porter could see you now,” he whispered.

Pansy’s mind proceeded to block out what would happen next from then on.

*************

Somewhere in the Barrow, where Porter’s body was, Oracle came back. She pulled out a small vial of black goo, opened it, and drizzled it onto his body, waiting.

After a few moments, large black veins wrapped around his body and covered his wounds. He descended into the ground, the descent making sickening crunching and ripping noises, like flesh was being torn.

The Oracle stared at the ground for a minute, then moved back up to the surface.

*************

The steady beeping of a machine slowly brought back Pansy from unconsciousness. Her eyelids felt like crusty glue and she blinked a few times, looking around at her surroundings. White walls surrounded her and a little over half of her body was covered with a blanket, her only piece of clothing being a pale blue hospital gown. Gauze covered her arms and she couldn’t feel one of her legs. When she tried to move, a searing pain went through her hips to her legs.

“Oh, you’re awake, ma’am,” a nurse said, walking over to Pansy. “We found you right outside the academy grounds, are you alright?”

“..hwuh?”

“We… tried to do an examination on you but we found multiple signs of assault on your body and you were bleeding a lot. Can you tell me what happened?”

_flashing lights--_

“What… happened?”

 _the_ _stage was set, no going back now--_

“The doctors found… several tears on you. Please, Ma’am, is there any way that we can identify who assaulted you?”

_time to greet your new audience: only you and your own self._

Pansy stared at her, slowly trying to remember what happened. As the pieces slowly came together, something hot and wet ran down her face. Wails escaped her mouth as she covered her face with her hands, pain running up and down her body.

_you wouldn’t keep them waiting now, would you?_

 

**ARC ONE: ELYSIUM’S GATE COMPLETED.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoops, forgot to tell you something!  
> Clairvoyant is divided up into four arcs depending on who the main 'villain' is that both Clair and HABIT have to kill.


End file.
